Shifting Mindsets

Once upon a time, I was a recent graduate in Information Technology from UWI St. Augustine. I was very excited to grow as a professional and my career moved quickly.

I went from an entry level position to a specialist position at a well respected multinational firm, to actually transferring and relocating to Toronto, Canada where I continued my career. I ‘reached’ as we say in Trinidad & Tobago. Good job, good salary, good benefits, good employer. Just one thing.

I wasn’t happy. 

I acknowledged my unhappiness and tried to address it by doing the same things I was doing but harder. Longer hours, more study, more intense periods of work. I did what I could, but one just thing.

I still wasn’t happy.

I eventually returned to Trinidad & Tobago to an even better job than the one I left in Toronto. I had done everything that one is ‘supposed’ to do but, as you can guess by now, I was still not happy.

Even though I was aware that I was unhappy in my job at the time, I wasn’t able to see myself as anything else than an IT Specialist because I was locked within a mindset that only allowed me to see myself that way. 

As soon as I was able to adopt a new mindset, one that allowed me to let go of everything I held onto and instead imagine a new place where I would be fulfilled, I was free to seek help from someone who helped me to find the right career path for me. 

Fast forward to 2021. I am the co-founder and Director of Josal Consulting Ltd. The switch from IT professional to Consulting Psychologist and Managing Director was made possible by a change of Mindset. No change of mindset, no change in results. A change in mindset, a change in results.

I am not going to tell you that life is blissful now and everything is perfect, but I am fulfilled in what I do daily and a lot more content and at peace than I ever was before.

Why did I share this story with you?

The world around us changed approximately two years ago. We responded to it by adopting a new mindset that was designed to protect us. We needed this survival mindset as we battled a lethal, invisible enemy. Initially we hoped that the battle would be short and that life as we knew it would return. Scientists now tell us that this is not so. The invisible enemy will be with us for the long term, a part of life on this planet that we call home. The battle will go on.

Some of us have lived with a survival mindset for so long that we seem to have forgotten anything else. Our energy and our time is filled with ‘getting by’, ‘staying healthy’, ‘doing what we have to do’, and ‘making the most of the situation’. Are we now allowing a survival mindset to define us? To rob us of hope? To dim the light of future possibilities? To remove our ability to dream? To keep fear as the dominant motivator for our behaviour? While we must continue to do everything we need to keep healthy and safe, we must not become so imprisoned by a survival mindset that we forget how to live, how to dream, how to have fun, how to love. How to be human. 

As we enter a new phase in the pandemic, ask yourself are you just surviving right now? Do you feel like March 2020 never ended? Maybe you need a new Mindset. Maybe you can re-discover joy in your own life again, even though things are different. Changing mindsets worked for me when I felt stuck, it can work for you too. 

New mindset, new results.