At one point when I was looking for a job early in my career, I reached out to quite a lot of organisations with my cv. One of them replied that they wanted to hire me. The position was not starting until several months later but I was over the moon.

About a month later I got the previous message, I got contacted by another of the organisations I’ve applied to. They were also interested in my cv. What’s more, they were even a better opportunity than the one I had accepted.

I was torn. I didn't want to let the first organisation down but it was such a good opportunity...

I reached out to my only mentor at the time and she told me I should be cautious. I didn't want to be known as somebody that was untrustworthy... Long story short, I declined the second offer.

In the very long run, all went well with my first option but I regret that my decision was based on “not letting others down” and not on “this is the best choice for me”.

That taught me a great lesson- every time my brain goes into the “I may be letting others down” rabbit hole, I question if I’m letting myself down instead. I also examine the long term effect of my decision. In my story, the decision was life changing for me - it affected my career path - whereas for my employers it would have been an inconvenience but definitely it wouldn't have changed the orgenisation.

Back to you: Are you not stepping up in your professional career because you don’t want to let others down (family, friends, work colleagues)? How can you avoid letting yourself down?

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