Diagnosing the Worker Mentality
Change can be scary—even if change can result in being happier and more fulfilled and excited about life every day. But rather than risk trying something new in order to experience more out of life, you stick to what’s comfortable. Is there a way out? What’s keeping you from reaching your potential?
An important step to improving your life is to focus on your mentality. In fact, your mentality may be what’s holding you back from your success. After 25 years of being in business for myself and helping countless people, I’ve seen how simply knowing your mentality can change your life forever. In this post, you’ll learn about one type of mentality.
What Is a Worker Mentality?
Here’s an example of what a worker mentality looks like. Imagine Tim works at a restaurant. As a server, he does what he is supposed to every day: he shows up on time, takes care of his customers, and gets along well with the restaurant’s owner, who was also his boss.
One day, Tim shows up to work and his boss tells him that the restaurant’s chef called in sick.
So tonight, the owner has to be a chef, which means that rather than supervising her employees and making sure customers are happy, she’ll be in the kitchen. It also means that everyone else must work twice as hard. When Tim’s shift is up, the restaurant is still busy. But rather than stay longer to help with the understaffed restaurant, he goes home. After all, he’s worked as long as he was supposed to.
Imagine that angry customers posted bad restaurant reviews to punish the restaurant for poor service that night. While this is terrible news for his boss, it doesn’t concern Tim. After all, it’s not his restaurant.
Also, Tim’s worker mentality gives him a false sense of security. Although he feels comfortable working for a boss, any day, he could receive very bad news. For example, the restaurant could go out of business or his boss could lay him off to save money. So in reality, Tim’s feeling of safety and comfort really isn’t safe or comfortable at all.
Tim’s example demonstrates the worker mentality. He:
- Did what he was supposed to do—but nothing more.
- Thought in the short term. He didn’t feel responsible for the success of his boss’s restaurant. If the restaurant failed, he could find work elsewhere.
- Didn’t see the point in learning more about his job and taking on more responsibility.
- Needed his boss to tell him exactly how to fill his work hours.
While routines are very important, in Tim’s case, depending on his worker mentality was holding him back. It was keeping him from achieving bigger things, pushing himself, and improving his life. And as long as he kept his worker mentality, he would never be able to change and break free.
Although you may not be a server, maybe there are aspects of Tim’s experience that you can relate to. Or perhaps you thought, “If I were Tim, I would have definitely stayed and helped my boss.” But if you were being completely honest, you may realize that there have been times when you did have the chance to take on more responsibility but, for whatever reason, you didn’t follow through.
Look honestly at your mentality. Could it be holding you back from success? If that’s the case, what would life look like with a different mentality?
