How tree thinking can ruin your career plans
You’re standing at the bottom of the tree, looking up.
There are so many different ways you could tackle getting to the top, each one has its own risks, each one has uncertainties.
Maybe you’ll take the direct approach and shinny straight up the middle using the power of your own thighs and trusting your hands are strong enough to pull you up.
But what if you grow weak half way up? Or it’s slippier than it looks? What if you don’t make it to the big strong branch where you’re planning to take a rest? What if you do get there and then you’ve got to think again about the next part of the journey?
What if things don’t go exactly to plan?
Chances are they won’t. And tree thinking won’t change the outcome either, it’ll likely just stop you from setting out on the climb at all.
You might recognise your own patterns of thinking here.
Those tumbling, negative thoughts that disable rather than drive you forward. The constant ‘what ifs?’ that send you down the rabbit hole of the worst possible case scenario. The churn of noise that won’t let up long enough for you to just get on with it.
Let’s give tree thinking a reframe.
What if it’s there to help you work out what to do? What if it prompts you to ask some good questions?
When the thoughts come in thick and fast acknowledge them. They’re just trying to protect you from making a mistake. So maybe the first question is:
What would I do if I knew I couldn’t fail?
This question at least leads you to knowing which path you’d prefer to take and shows up the areas of resistance you have.
Tree thinking often consists of lots of ‘what if?’ questions.
What if I post online and nobody likes what I’m writing?
What if I leave this organisation and the next company isn’t as good?
What if I go for the promotion and my colleague gets it instead?
All great questions, all very disempowering.
Try hitting those questions with ‘So what?’.
Follow the rabbit down the hole, chase it down there. You control the questioning.
What if I leave this organisation and the next one isn’t as good?
So what?
I could potentially return to this organisation.
It might be time to start that business I’ve been thinking about for years.
I can always find another organisation, building on what I learnt from this move.
And then you can always throw in some of your own ‘what ifs?’ that your protective old brain didn’t think of.
What if it is a better organisation for me?
What if I do get the promotion?
What if I can finally fulfil my potential?
Our brains are tricky little buggers and the thoughts they throw at us can so easily take us off track with our plans.
By taking charge of the situation and controlling the questioning you can see the potential for hearing the questions, facing the answers and putting in the moves towards the kind of working life you want now.
