Changing careers: what if your abilities weren’t set in stone?
You are considering changing careers, but one thought keeps coming back to you: ‘I’ve never been good at this,’ or ‘I’m not going to become someone else at my age.’ That voice is not talking about skill. It is talking about your perception of your abilities. And that perception is not neutral: it influences the way you act.
Psychologist Carol Dweck has highlighted two fundamental ways of viewing one’s abilities: fixed mindset and growth mindset.
What you believe is possible determines what you dare to do.
The fixed mindset is based on the idea that skills are innate and define once and for all what you are capable of doing. If you have succeeded, it is because you are talented. If you have failed, it is because it was not meant for you.
In this mindset, every difficulty becomes a challenge to your abilities. So you hesitate to try, or you give up quickly to avoid being judged. The blockage does not come from a lack of desire, but from a fear of being permanently disqualified.
The growth mindset, on the other hand, is based on the idea that any skill can be developed. That mistakes are part of the journey. That nothing is set in stone. And that what you are capable of doing tomorrow depends on what you dare to try today.
This simple shift in the way we talk to each other transforms the approach to retraining. It does not eliminate difficulties. But it does create space to learn, test and progress.
It’s not that retraining is impossible. It’s that you believe it’s impossible.
Nora, 27, thought she was incapable of speaking in public: ‘I avoided meetings and blushed at the slightest thing. Now I train my colleagues. I thought that was just the way I was. In fact, I had never practised.’
Delphine, 44: ‘I was afraid of looking ridiculous in interviews. But by practising over and over again, I gained confidence. I thought I was too shy. In fact, I just never had the opportunity to prepare myself.’
It wasn’t their personalities that changed. It was their perception of what they could still become.
Changing careers does not mean transforming yourself. It means stopping being stuck in a rut.
Three levers to activate a growth mindset
- Replace ‘I’m not cut out for this’ with: ‘I haven’t learnt how to do it yet’.
- Take a past difficulty and reframe it as progress. What can you do today that you couldn’t do yesterday?
- LList three things you never thought possible five years ago that you have now achieved. You have just demonstrated that you are changing.
It’s not a character trait. It’s a perspective you can choose to adopt. And it’s this perspective that will open or close your next professional door.
👉 Try the aptitude test to explore what you may not have dared to look at yet.
