Productivity Mindset
Most high-achieving women have a productivity mindset (because we are taught to have one). Especially women lawyers.
In short, we are socialized to believe that our worth and our success is tied up in how much we do, including in how much we do for other people and whether other people are pleased with what and how much we’ve done.
This socialization is next to impossible to avoid. And unfortunately, this mindset REALLY doesn’t serve us.
It can sound good and true and logical in our head, but if unchecked the productivity mindset:
▫️ Contributes to exhaustion, overworking, and burnout.
▫️ Stifles your creativity.
▫️ Drowns out your own wants, needs, and preferences, both for the present and the future.
▫️ Trades quantity for quality.
▫️ Keeps you from being present and just trying to keep your head above water.
▫️ Prevents you from recognizing your value beyond your hard work and your output.
▫️ Dampens your ideas and your willingness to share them.
▫️ Prioritizes other people at your expense.
▫️ Stops you from earning more.
▫️ Makes it impossible to rest or relax.
▫️ Has us making all of our decisions from fear and a lack of self-trust.
I call it the productivity trap.
The best news? This mindset can be shifted to one that actually serves you. You can get out of the trap. It's like one of those finger traps you played with as a kid. The harder you pull -- the more you buy into this mindset, the more you work to try and feel good about yourself, the more you put others above yourself, the more you give away control over your time to other people, the more you berate yourself for not living up to made up standards of productivity -- the tighter it gets, and the worse you feel. You have to start to loosen your grip on these things that you've been taught are true but aren't.
So you can show up in this world the way that you want. So you can create the life that you want.
A ❤️ note to you: I can help you shift your productivity mindset to one that will have you feeling more calm and confident and less overwhelmed, stuck, and anxious - all while still leaving enough spaciousness for being a messy human. Sign up for a free call with me at jenndealcoaching.as.me/consult. On the call, we will (1) assess where you are now and where you want to be, (2) I’ll tell you how coaching can help get you there, and (3) you’ll decide whether you’re ready to move forward with changing your life.
