Failure comes in different ways and it can either be a source of morale boost to those who view it positively or a source of depression to those who view it negatively. Typical perception is that, people fail in their career because, they lack the skills to make themselves succeed.

Recent studies reveals that those who had a failure in their early career life, actually have the propellent to become successful later. Failure helps an individual to sit back, create, and re-invent new ideas and strategies to beat the present obstacles and limitations.

But if you want to have a successful career you need to know the common reasons for career failure. Following are the 10 common reasons for an unsuccessful career.

Lack of vision or career goals

If you want to hit your aim, you must know what it looks like and where it exactly is. Working in a job where you don't have any vision or goal is like taking a shot in the dark. In most cases, having no vision or goal is one of the key reasons for career failure. Most of us lack vision and clarity about our career goal.

Not passionate about your career

Passion is the driving force that can help sustain a given career, and it helps an individual to enjoy what he does. It is a fact that when you are not particularly passionate about a career or anything, for that matter you simply don’t work as hard to achieve your goals.

You can become successful only by doing what you love the most. If you have a passion then it is extremely important to stay up-to-date with all the latest techniques and technology that will help you stand out from the rest.

Lack of competitive skills

The world is becoming very competitive as each day goes by, and if one must progress through the journey of crumbles to stardom, one must learn the tricks of competitiveness.

While competitive skill comes as in-born for some people, others need to learn and nurture it into perfection. The unique reason individuals should learn about competitive skill is to help them foster growth and development. If an individual must go up to the ladder of success, then he/ she must learn to be competitive.

Unwillingness to learn and stay updated

Don’t let your learning to be ended with your academic life, learning is a continuous process; even in work.  Always find time keep yourself updated about the new trends and technologies which you can utilise in your work life. If we don’t have the mindset to embrace what is new, we are in for a rough and eventually unsatisfactory journey in our careers.

Inconsistency

Inconsistency is another major reason for one's career downfall. There are many individuals who jump from one job to another too quickly. When the employer sees a history of rapid job changes on the CV, they see the risk of the same inconsistency following you in their company too. A candidate might have adequate knowledge, skills, and the right degree but inconsistency can be the reason why even qualified candidates fail to get a good job.

Laziness

Laziness is better to be described as ill-discipline. People suffering from ill-discipline are those who are not thinking things through, not preparing themselves and generally just believing they can wing it. This leads to irresponsible, undisciplined behaviour such as staying out too late, drinking too much, not sleeping enough, not taking pride in our appearance and being late when we could have avoided it. Doing such things leads to us letting people down.

Scared of failure

Success comes to those who hold the courage to do something that makes them different from the rest without the thought of failure. Taking risks, trying some new strategy, coming forward to do a task everyone is hesitating to take responsibility for, these are some things you can do to prove yourself different and significantly better than others. You can only stand out of the crowd if you decide to step out of your comfort zone and take responsibility for something new for you and everyone else in your workplace.

Unhealthy Lifestyle and Health Issues

Your lifestyle and your health affect your career a lot. Your emotional well-being is as important as your physical fitness is, when it comes to your career. Most emotional and physical ailments are due to bad thinking, imbalance and toxic work environment, unhealthy eating habits, lack of exercise, and particularly the overthinking habit. All these things can make you sick for a long time and leave you bedridden.

Lack of mentors

Without guidance, all your effort will be like rowing an aimless boat in the ocean. A successful mentorship is transformative for the mentee because a mentor has gained great knowledge through experimental methods, and this knowledge is being transferred through theories to the mentee. Hence a mentee is learning in an easier manner what he ought to learn in a hard way.

Having too many goals but no focus

Some people have too many goals and not enough focus. It’s like they’re standing in front of a dart board with three targets in mind.

You should determine the one goal you are focused on and move forward with that one goal only. Eliminate other goals that are secondary. This is not to say that you should never have more than one goal. Rather, you just need to realize that you have only so much time and energy. Therefore, you must choose the goal that will give you the highest return on effort and focus on that one goal first. Once you complete it, you can then focus on other goals.

After a career setback, you are going to feel a lot of things: outrage, exhaustion, sadness, and disappointment. Those emotions are valid and deserve to be honoured. You deserve time and space to process them. Process in the sense, reflecting on what really matters to you to better understand why you are hurting. If you feel anger or despair, recognize those feelings as a deeper need for something else. It could be growth, change, or a new challenge or purpose.

Succeeding in your career means that you will most likely have to forge your own path and be a leader, and you cannot be a leader if you do not have the strength and the courage to follow your dreams and your passion. And, if you want to become successful in your career, you need to improve your mindset, lifestyle, and your approach towards your work style.

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