The key to managing your career can be summarised in a single phrase: get to where you want to be without getting in the way of your own progress.

We all have barriers to change. Some of them are external (the state of the market, the jobs available, the qualifications and experience necessary). But the most significant barriers are internal: the limitations we place on ourselves, and the image we present to others.

People who are changing career become more vulnerable to ideas that damage self-belief. Friends and relatives will tell you that you can’t achieve your next step. Self-limiting ideas keep you awake at 3am: I’m too old; I’m under-qualified; I don’t do well at interviews… These powerful internal messages prevent you from moving on, even from a job you hate. Phrases such as “better the devil you know” help to justify your failure to act. Before you know it, your career ideas have been trashed and it’s back to the grindstone.

Our brains love to avoid change. But there are tricks to defeat it. The first is to ask, “What happens to me if nothing changes?” The second is to sustain levels of self-confidence by recruiting a couple of positive-minded friends to coach you through the process of change. Pick people who:
a) can help you to re-run the highlights of your career;
b) will help to record your successes;
c) encourage you to explore career possibilities without self-criticism.

Get them to help you to rediscover your best self, and to make connections and discoveries that will help you to move up or on.