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What are the saboteurs holding back your career growth? Have you ever turned down a new challenge because you didn't feel capable?

What are the saboteurs holding back your career growth? Have you ever turned down a new challenge because you didn't feel capable?

10/07/2026 85 views
American author Shirzad Chamine, in his book Positive Intelligence, names and describes the 10 main mental saboteurs. He also offers valuable tips on how to identify and manage them. Often, our greatest enemy is internal — our well-known inner "critic." These saboteurs are acquired primarily in childhood as protective mechanisms. They are directly linked to our fears and play an important role during that phase of life, when we need to learn how to defend ourselves and cope with new emotions. For example, fleeing from imminent danger rather than confronting it; we are also encouraged to stay vigilant about external risks when learning new activities, not to talk to strangers, to distrust everyone, and so on. 


In adulthood, however, keeping these saboteurs running at high intensity becomes an obstacle to our personal and professional development. They can even create paralyzing situations and often require professional help for us to become aware of them. Breaking this cycle and developing our own strategies to deal with these "sabotaging voices" is a liberating process.

The real impact in the corporate world

Over the past 9 years working as a Coach and Mentor, I have encountered numerous executives and professionals who failed to achieve their dreams and career goals because of limiting beliefs. Their own minds sabotaged them, making them believe they were not capable of taking the next step. The role of the Coach is precisely to help them expand their awareness of this. For instance, I once worked with a coachee who was an expat seeking success in the original electronic music market. Although he had an excellent background in advertising, he believed he should not pursue opportunities in his area of expertise, as doing so would "divert" him from his musical goal. This belief led him to spend two years facing serious financial hardship in underemployment. The stress was so overwhelming that he was producing less and less music and was on the verge of giving up on everything and returning to his home country. The reflective question I posed was: "What is stopping you from being excellent in two professions at the same time?" At that moment, he realized that the true obstacle was his own mind and his limiting belief. Once he gained that awareness, he allowed himself to participate in selection processes. In less than three months, he was chosen and hired for an excellent corporate position in advertising at Facebook's European headquarters, with a great work environment and highly flexible hours. With his new salary, in addition to covering his personal expenses, he was able to rent a professional acoustic studio to produce his music. The result? He began producing far more electronic music than he ever had before, while also gaining recognition and fulfillment in both professions.

You can take a free test to discover the intensity of your saboteurs on the author's Positive Intelligence website and receive the results by email: https://bit.ly/3KBChDE — and if you'd like to talk to me about the results, reach out via direct message or WhatsApp. 

What about you?

Have you ever turned down a new professional or personal challenge because you didn't think yourself capable of taking it on? How have you been sabotaging yourself? 


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