Are Your Reasons Excuses in Disguise?

When questioning yourself or reflecting on ‘why’, there are always reasons behind the decisions and choices we make.

This, of course, is true when it comes to making career moves.

On one side there are all the reasons why you want to move and why it’s a sound idea.

On the other side there are all the reasons why you shouldn’t make a move or a change.

Yes, we’ve sort of dipped our toes into pros and cons territory 😉

But what if your well-thought-out reasons not to move or change are actually holding you back?

What if they’re out of synch with how you, your life, your career have changed or evolved?

What if they are really excuses in disguise?

With this in mind I sat down, pen and paper at the ready, and started doodling a list of reasons that, given the right context, might accidentally hold someone back.

When I got to 106 I decided to stop 😅

After a little filtering and clustering, please let me present the 106.

I hope they might help you think about your own situation or spark an idea or two.

🔹Side note: naughty number 5 is one that got its claws into me once upon a time!🔹

Current Workplace

1. I have only been here a short time
2. There are a few more things to achieve
3. The people are great
4. I’ve been here too long
5. Promotion is possible if I stay
6. I know the processes
7. Things will get better soon
8. I’m key to a project
9. I landed the funding
10. I won the business
11. I know lots of people
12. They’ve promised other opportunities where I am
13. I have status here
14. Maybe if I get a couple more grant applications accepted
15. I feel comfortable here

Other People

16. If I go I’ll be letting people down
17. What will others at work think
18. I like my boss
19. Other people have had bad experiences
20. Friends think it’s bad idea
21. My boss will be angry
22. I’m not comfortable with strangers
23. What if people don’t like me
24. Everyone expects me to stay
25. My team need me
26. I owe my boss
27. They took a chance on me
28. Everyone else’s waiting to see what happens

Career Stage

29. The timing is all wrong
30. I’m too old / young / inexperienced
31. Just need a few papers published
32. It’s too late to change
33. What about my professional status?
34. It will affect my credibility
35. I’ve worked hard to build my reputation
36. It’s too soon to think about changes
37. Could be career suicide
38. I’d look flaky and fickle
39. It would be a waste of what I’ve done so far
40. Shows lack of commitment

Inspiration and Motivation

41. Don’t know where to start
42. What’s the point?
43. Why disrupt the status quo?
44. I hate change
45. Be like starting again
46. Too much effort
47. Best to leave well alone
48. Wait a bit longer, things will improve
49. It’ll take too long to happen
50. I’ll do it next week or next month
51. Next year will be better
52. Easy for you to say…
53. I haven’t got any ideas
54. My ideas are rubbish
55. How will I do it?
56. I just need to tough it out

Making Choices

57. Not sure what I want
58. I’m not sure if I want to move
59. What if I don’t like it?
60. I might make wrong choice
61. I’ve got it wrong before
62. How do I know it will be better?
63. You such hear horror stories
64. I feel overwhelmed
65. Tried before it and made a mistake
66. How will I choose what to do?

Big Wide World

67. Economic climate
68. There are no opportunities out there for me
69. Don’t know where to look for opportunities
70. I’m waiting to see what happens with the cost of living
71. It’s very competitive
72. The job market’s flat

Lifestyle

73. There’s not enough time for me to change
74. It’s too risky
75. Need more money before I take a risk
76. I like the safety of where I am
77. I have job security why risk it
78. I’m too busy
79. Family commitments

Type of Work

80. You can’t be academic outside academia
81. I have very specialist knowledge
82. My work’s interesting so why move?
83. Never moved to something new before
84. I trained for this so…
85. People don’t understand what I do

Experience and Skills

86. I haven’t got right experience
87. Never worked anywhere like it before
88. My skills won’t fit anywhere else
89. My CV is bad / boring / sparse
90. I have no business acumen
91. I’m not a business person
92. I’m not a sales person

Self-confidence

93. Been long time since I was last interviewed
94. No-one will want me
95. I’m not good enough
96. Not confident enough
97. I haven’t done anything good
98. Takes me a long time to settle in
99. Don’t know what to say
100. It’s not who I am
101. I’m too introverted
102. I get too nervous
103. I get tongue-tied
104. I tried it before and got nowhere
105. I won’t even get selected for interview
106. It’s just not me to go against the norm

Remember, although reasons may be valid, they can sometimes be excuses in disguise.

Header image courtesy of Braydon Anderson on unsplash