What attributes do successful career changers share? Is there a way to tell who will be successful in their career change? People who achieve audacious career goals have one thing in common: they share a successful career change mindset.

I call this mindset “The Audacity of Belief.”

Here are 3 essential ingredients of a successful career change mindset:

Success = Believing you can exponentially improve your life + Trusting this even when you don’t believe + Loving your life as it is in the meantime

Ingredient #1 - Believing you can exponentially improve your life

If you don’t believe in your ability to make changes, nothing else matters.

Not resumes or LinkedIn. Not interviewing or branding. Not networking or negotiation.

Without the internal belief that you have the power to create change, it’s going to be really challenging to do so.

If you don’t believe you can make it, how do you expect to convince anyone else?

People who believe figure things out. They know problems have solutions. They’re okay with some unpleasantness if that’s what it takes to get to the good stuff.

They. do. the. work.

Ingredient #2 - Trusting when you don’t believe

There will be times when you don’t believe. When your commitment is challenged. Sometimes repeatedly. In spectacularly crap-tastic ways.

The smart money is not on people who claim they’re fearless. I’d never get in a moving vehicle with them let alone tag along on their career journey.

The people who succeed are the ones who are scared but do it anyway. They don’t try to avoid roadblocks, they plan for them. They accept that they’ll make mistakes. They feel the feelings and follow their intuition.

They know that confidence comes from repeated action, so they keep it moving.

They have faith that their overarching belief (ingredient #1) will guide them.

It’s easy to believe when things are going well. It takes strength and courage to trust when they’re not.

Ingredient #3 - Loving your life as it is in the meantime

While some people succeed in reaching their goals without enjoying their life now, it sure makes the process a lot more challenging.

It also begs the question of whether they’ll be happy once they reach their goal.

If you’re pinning your happiness to a new career (or promotion or raise or degree), brace yourself.

The overwhelming research supports happiness —> career success, not the other way around.

Loving your life as it is doesn’t mean you’re complacent or that there’s no room for improvement. You believe in your ability to make things exponentially better, remember?

It just means you’re not self-flagellating yourself daily for not being there yet.

And it’s about wringing as much joy and peace from the elements that are working. And creating distance and separation from the ones that aren’t.

Turns out, there’s a LOT you can improve well before you figure out your next career move.

Let’s talk about how to get there more quickly.

What Lies Beneath the Successful Career Change Mindset

The core of every single thing we do (or don’t) is based on this premise: Thoughts and feelings lead to actions.

If you hit a career roadblock and say, “Here we go again. I know exactly how this story is going to end,” you allow yourself to be swept up in the narrative.

You’re essentially saying, “I feel powerless to change this. Might as well submit to the tides of circumstance.”

How likely are you to take meaningful action when you’re feeling powerless?

Ask the nearly 60% of US voters that stay home during mid-term elections.

Let’s reframe our “here we go again” narrative to something more empowering like, “I’ve seen this situation before. Here’s what I know now and what I’m going to do differently.”

Same roadblock, totally different energy.

This is the key to a successful career change mindset. It’s not denying the challenges you face, it’s shifting how you interact with those very same challenges.

Other examples:

• “I’m not smart enough to get the job I want.”

• “There’s no way the job I want actually exists.”

• “All jobs are like this. Being constantly stressed is a fate I have to accept.”

No one is going to think expansively or take empowering action if they buy in to these beliefs.

If you really, really want something but are finding it tough to make it happen, start by getting really honest about what you’re telling yourself about it.

It’s As Easy To Contemplate Success As It Is To Assume Failure

A couple years ago, I was worrying aloud to my financial advisor about an impending catastrophic stock market crash and how I would never be able to retire and could he put me in touch with a realtor to help me find a bridge to live under.

I interrupted my own rant to ask, “How are you so calm?!”

He said, “It’s just as easy to imagine things turning out well as it is to imagine them not.”

Spoken like an optimist.

But he’s right. We often choose to worry about the things that could go wrong rather than lean into the things that could go right.

You can choose to believe that taking steps will help you grow exponentially, build new skills, and ultimately be successful.

Or you can buy in to the idea of failing repeatedly in increasingly dramatic ways until ultimately dying penniless and alone.

The former spurs you to action, the latter keeps you from taking it. The choice is yours.

We’re motivated by avoidance of pain. Change can be painful. So is stagnation.

How is the pain of permanent low expectations better than the growing pains that actually get us somewhere better?

What Would It Take For You To Try?

There’s nothing I can say to make you believe. The Audacity of Belief is a choice you need to make for yourself.

Start with the commitment to yourself that you’re going to go after this thing NO MATTER WHAT.

Time box it if you want—3 months, 6 months, 2 years. Allow yourself to believe for that time.

You can always go back to your old way of doing things once time is up.

Would you rather try and fail or wonder “what if?”

Until then, remember the 3 ingredients of a successful career change mindset.

Ready for a career that matches who you are?

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Author Bio: 

Before becoming a coach, Caroline worked in management consulting and financial services. She's made it her mission to help people grow, contribute, and get wherever they want to go.

She’s also a tennis fanatic, aspiring Minimalist, FIRE (Financial Independence and Retire Early) enthusiast, and Aloha Spirit seeker 🤙. She loves to share stories from her unconventional life and career focused on freedom, creativity, fun, health, family, and community. If she can do it, you can, too.

The life and career you want is possible once you have the roadmap. Take the first step by downloading your free guide: 4 Steps To Take Back Your Life and Design a Career With Purpose.