Episode 3: How to build a marathon mindset at work

👋 Yo! Welcome to the next episode of How to negotiate  where you learn how to grow your career and income with better negotiation strategy in less than 5 minutes. 

🏃‍♀️ More than just miles

When I used to run cross country, I was running 8-10 miles a day. Despite that distance, I struggled to imagine tripling that number to run a marathon. I asked a friend on the team who had run a few marathons how he adjusted his training schedule to prepare. 

He said “The challenge isn't the 26 miles; it's silencing the voice that says you can’t.”

I often struggle with fighting the voice in my head that says I am not ___ enough, so I started researching different approaches to changing mindsets. Let me walk you through an example with healthy eating. 

I struggled with cooking healthy meals – big time. But then, I started telling myself, “I am a chef.” And not just any chef. One who revels in the creativity and process of cooking. This wasn’t just a mantra; it was a complete mindset overhaul. And guess what? It helped me rewire my brain.

I also started cooking for others which helped me focus on the aspect of serving instead of belaboring the cooking process itself and something clicked. Even today my favorite YouTube pastime is learning how to make my favorite fast food meals at home in less time than it takes to drive to the restaurant and order it.

Let’s apply this to your work.

💎 Advice on how to shift your mindset at work

1. Find it, say it: Identify the persona you want to emulate and name it

   1. I am a ____ (fill in the blank for your career title or persona) 

2. Step into their shoes: walk through a typical week in the life - tools, frameworks, and teams most frequently collaborated with 

   1. I’ve found it helpful to view blogs for tools that sell to that persona to get better educated about a typical week. E.g. for product managers, read blogs from roadmapping tools like Productboard. 

   2. I’ve been experimenting with persona research prompts using ChatGPT. Find those here. 

3. Self assessment: Score myself on gaps for knowledge on soft skills, hard skills, and industry knowledge.

   1. I like to use a -5 to 5 score to force self awareness on how much I know. E.g. -2 tells me a lot more about how much I need to learn vs. 2.

_{Use my free template to jumpstart this mindset shift exercise}

Once you’ve finished your research and scored yourself, now you have a clear list of topics that you need to improve on. From here you can reach out to your board of directors or reach out to coworkers and friends to get introductions to people to help in the areas you didn’t score 3+.

I find this is most helpful when you are a) trying to break into a new career/role or b) working on identifying the gap between your role today and your next promotion. 

If you get stuck and need help researching a week in the life or improving your skills, respond to this email. See ya next week 👋 

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✨ Special thank you to Gigi Marquez who suggested I start this newsletter 🙏