To find jobs for introverts with anxiety, try Elon Musk's approach
How to find jobs for introverts with anxiety, the Elon Musk way
Introverts with anxiety can take heart for their jobs prospects. I say this because many seemingly extroverted superstars are actually introverts.
This includes Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and movie star Keanu Reeves. Both are introverts who are superstars in their industries. Both have struggled with anxiety.
If you are an introvert, you can use Elon Musk’s story as an inspiration. It is a good guide to help you find your career path.
Musk was an introverted young man. He kept to himself, more brainy than physical. He developed anxiety when he was bullied in middle school because he was shy and physically small.
But over time he learned to make the most of his talents and grow out of his introversion. He found the career path where he could be the superstar: as an entrepreneur. And he has never looked back.
There is a positive theme you can take away from Elon Musk’s story.
Although he was an introvert with anxiety early on, it didn’t hold him back from finding the career path he loved.
Like Musk, you need to identify the career role you are best suited to. Then you can take almost any career path you choose.
How to find jobs for introverts with anxiety
Career change at 40…a fresh opportunity to get it right
Making a career change in your 40’s is a chance to make a course correction.
A chance to align your work life with your values, needs and desires. To work with people you enjoy working with.
Elon Musk had founded Tesla and SpaceX by his early 40’s, proving it’s never too late to start over at 40 and make a career pivot, as long as you pursue your vision
So How do you make this career pivot at 40?
You need to clarify your optimal career role. I’ll show you how in this video.
Luckily, a small tweak in your career decision making approach can make all the difference in your work life and career satisfaction, like it did for Musk.
You don’t have to change who you are. You are fine just as you are. Byy 40 years of age, you have a good amount of work and/or life experience under your belt by now.
You just have to take charge of your career direction.
As a Career Discovery Coach I’ve found that when you are in a career role that is not a fit, or it does not align with who you are, …you feel a dissonance. Anxiety. Discomfort.
In many cases you think it’s the boss, but they are just a symptom, not the cause!
So what is the best way to make a smooth change to the right career role at 40?
Well, don’t think of this as a career change to a new company or industry.
Look at as a change in career ROLES .. roles that better align.. with your destiny, who you are
The career role where you can be the superstar!
When you step into the role you are meant for, you are in control. you ARE at your best most productive self.
For example, this happened to me when I made a career change from working on Wall Street as a Bond trader, It was a glamorous job, paid well, but I didn’t use my talents in the boring routine of buying and selling trades all day.
Like Elon Musk, I knew I had to be an entrepreneur. I started several businesses and have never looked back.
So What are the factors that determine the career role where you can be the superstar
There are what I call the Five Factors of your Career Destiny. These factors 100% guarantee your career satisfaction.
I will prove it. Better, you can prove it to yourself.
Look at your most recent job or career role where you are unhappy. You’ll find, it’s because one …or all …of these five factors are not satisfied:
You are not applying your most talents properly
The job doesn’t reflect your values and beliefs
The lifestyle doesn’t suit you
You are not working with the crew of people.. you want to spend time with all day
You are not engaging with the ideal customer you are meant to work with
You now have a chance to define these five factors for yourself, and land in your most optimal, confident career roles.
5 factors image:
This graphic reflects a process I have innovated.. to help you define confident career roles.
When you identify… how best to apply your talents, identify.. your values and beliefs, your target market audience who need you, the lifestyle you want, and deliver your career role through the work community you are happy working with all day,
Then you gain control of your career path, and become free from work stress and anxiety.
Like Elon Musk.., when you are connected to your work mission… you may change industries or jobs, but your career role never changes. You are on a lifetime career path.
When you step in to the right career role, you look at the world differently. You look at it with confidence.
And world in turn, looks at you with confidence. And provides you with the people places and opportunities it had denied to you in the past.
Like I always say, Change how you look at the world, and you change how the world looks at you
If you need to make a career change at 40, you now understand how to do it right this time.
You can proceed without fear… when you identify your optimal career role, by basing it on the Five Factors of your Career Destiny.
Whether you are making a career change at 40 with no degree or if you have several degrees like Elon Musk, this is your chance.
If you found my approach to a career change at 40 to be helpful, I have three ways to help you discover the career role that is right for you.
My Define Your Career Destiny one week home study course.
The Career destiny fast track 3 week home study course
Or my 2 hour Career Destiny Workshop for Besties, where best friends can build a business or joint venture together.
All guided by a hands-on Career Discovery Coach.
If this video was helpful, please subscribe to my channel to receive new career destiny videos as they are released. Also any comments or questions are appreciated.
In this article, How introverts with anxiety can find jobs the Elon Musk way, we will cover:
Why personality type should not be a primary consideration to find a career you love
How Elon Musk overcame his introversion to define his career path
How personality types can put introverts into a box
Do you have Introvert Anxiety Syndrome?
“Yo, Adrian!” How Rocky’s girlfriend demonstrated some of the physical manifestations of anxiety
Common mistakes for introverts with anxiety to avoid
Diagram: How mindset beliefs manifest introverts’ anxiety
How to better manage mild anxiety so you can find the best jobs
Why the most important factor to find the best jobs for introverts is not personality type
Your personality type should NOT be the primary driver for finding the career you love.
In fact, the most successful and fulfilled introverts with anxiety do not allow their personality type to influence their career path.
Let me give you a couple examples, Keanu Reeves and Elon Musk.
Keanu Reeves is an introvert, yet his John Wick movies portray him as a high level dangerous hit man. In the Matrix trilogy, he fought all kinds of cyber warriors.
Does an action movie star sound like a typical job for an introvert with anxiety? No, not if you used personality test results as a guide.
However, it can be a job for you, if you don’t limit yourself. Reeves knew at 15 years old he wanted to be an actor and grew in his craft.
An even stronger example of a super-successful introvert with anxiety is Elon Musk.
How Elon Musk overcame his introversion to define his career path
Elon Musk was a late bloomer, and physically small till his late teens. Growing up in South Africa, he was bullied by gangs of boys. They literally hunted him down for fun at recess and after school!
His response was telling. Rather than look inward and hide, he worked out and took martial arts classes. He learned how to stand up and defend himself.
At the same time, he developed his mental powers and cultivated his skills were they were strongest. He got into coding at 11 years old. While coding is an aligned career for an introvert, he didn’t stop there. He defined his career path.
At only 12 years old, Musk developed a software he created called Blastar and sold it to a gaming app.
He made a career choice that aligned with his defined career role: He was an entrepreneur.
He always kept his entrepreneurial dream in the forefront. He had a degree in physics by 21. By age 27 he built an ecommerce platform he coded that he sold to eBay for $1.5 Billion.
He then used those funds to found Tesla and a few years later SpaceX. His was the first private company to launch a spacecraft.
Musk’s career path proves that even as an introvert with anxiety, you need to pursue your vision. You need to discover what career role you are meant for and go for it.
Take note that Elon Musk’s success and job fulfillment was due to his NOT making his introverted personality a primary driver in choosing a career path.
This is why you should be careful about personality tests limiting you into a narrow category.
How personality tests can put introverts with anxiety into a box
If as an introvert, if you allow personality tests to pigeonhole you into a category, you could be severely limiting yourself.
You could be branding yourself only as an introvert, and matching your job choices only to your personality type.
By limiting your career options to one personality type, you are creating unnecessary stress and anxiety.
Lets look at what these tests measure, to understand why.
What are psychometric tests?
Career Tests, aptitude tests, personality tests, interest tests etc. are what are known as psychometric tests.
In Greek, psych means mind, metric means measure. These tests measure your mind. And for that purpose, they are accurate.
Where they are not too accurate is in matching your personality ‘type’ to a job or business ‘category.’
INTP might match to mathematician, ISTJ might match to Librarian, etc.
The premise is because others in your personality type were a match for these jobs in the past, you should enjoy them too.
Your personality is not your destiny
However this is a far-fetched assumption. Your personality does not determine your destiny. Ask Elon Musk and Keanu Reeves and many other successful fulfilled introverts.
Plus, your personality type matches you to one of 16 possible categories of jobs.
This means you are only matched to only 6.35% of possible jobs.
Hmmmmm. Does it make sense to only be able to go after 1/16 of the job market? Why would you limit yourself to a category box like that?
Worst of all is the mental box these personality tests put you into. This factor is especially difficult for introverts, who tend to dwell on things.
Let me tell you about a sad, emerging syndrome that I see amongst introverts.
Do you have Introvert Anxiety Syndrome?
As a career mindset coach and in my career discovery coaching, I am noticing a new syndrome with introverts. It starts once they are categorized as an introvert from personality tests. They begin to feel limited and suffer from anxiety.
You literally start to assume the narrow parameters of your personality test results!
My name for this introvert anxiety syndrome. This is where your personality type designation causes you stress.
Stress and anxiety grow because you may begin to believe your personality type is all you are capable of. Especially if you are an obsessive type.
Its a box you can get yourself stuck in. Thinking “this is who I am” and “this is all I have to offer.”
Thank God Elon Musk didn’t let being an introvert limit his horizons!
He didn’t allow his boundaries to be defined as one of 16 personality types. I don’t recommend you do either.
“Yo, Adrian!” What are the physical manifestations of anxiety?
If you are familiar with the first Rocky movie, we see another introvert with anxiety who blossomed into a powerhouse.
You can never forget when Rocky would shout “Yo! Adrian!” to his girlfriend played by Talia Shire.
She was a shy introvert who exhibited many of the physical manifestations of anxiety:
- Adrian would hold her head down in a very coy manner
- Acted meek, mousey, and dressed frumpy
- She could barely look at customers in the eyes at the store
- Worked in a quiet little fish food store with fish, birds and turtles
With Rocky’s love and support, Adrian develops a new belief system about herself and finds the power to shed her anxiety. You can develop new belief systems as well (without needing Rocky to shout at you!)
Physical and mental manifestations of anxiety
Talia Shire’s character in Rocky overcame her introversion. However, serious anxiety can affect many areas of your life. This can include mental, emotional and physical.
The manifestations of anxiety can be quite debilitating, including phobias, obsessions, compulsions, irrational fears, worry, panic, sweating etc. (Again, consider a medical professional if you are unable to function normally.)
Fortunately, when the event or situation that causes anxiety is resolved, the anxiety can go away.
So if you are stressed, bored, underemployed or bullied by a bad boss in your job, that job related anxiety can be relieved.
This is why I say you shouldn’t obsess yourself in your introversion or anxiety.
Like Adrian and Elon Musk did, strive to grow out of it. Do not grow its importance in your job search. Let it be a secondary consideration.
In the right career your anxiety could dissipate.
Luckily, if your anxiety is a mild condition due to your thought patterns it can be reversed or largely eliminated with my process.
Avoiding the mindset trap of Introverts Unite
For an example of obsessing on your introversion, take the meme Introverts Unite! It has a fist symbol. It is totally the opposite of what you want to do as an introvert with anxiety.
It’s meant to be humorous but it ties you into an ‘us against them’ mindset.
For peace of mind, you want to avoid identifying as part of a self-absorbed introvert group. Better to identify as a member of your career path or professional industry.
How limiting beliefs can be the cause of introverts anxiety and stress
Because introverts thought processes are less outwardly verbalized than extroverts, if they are repeating negative self-talk or limiting beliefs to themselves, it can cause anxiety.
In this way, self-talk is a major self-limiter for introverts with anxiety.
Let’s look at how introverts self-generate their own anxiety, in the form of limiting beliefs.
How limiting beliefs can cause anxiety for introverts
In this meme we breakdown how introverts process the world. And how you may be causing yourself unnecessary stress and anxiety.
Let’s examine how limiting beliefs cause anxiety
Let’s start with sensory inputs on the left:
These are the events, information, people, relationships and emotions that are all around us, coming in from every possible angle.
In the center you see how you process these inputs through your rules:
You mentally process every event and experience through the internal rules you live by.
Every person, introvert or not, processes external and internal events based on their values (internal rules that guide how you filter events). As an introvert your rules may process inputs in a narcissistic manner.
- If you have a scarcity mindset you will process an event negatively (glass half empty)
- If you have a prosperity mindset, you will process an event positively (the glass is half full)
The right side of meme shows how your internal rules shape your mindset beliefs:
Beliefs are an expression of your values. They control how you feel about things.
The way your rules process events and people generates your career beliefs, money beliefs and relationship beliefs.
If your rules process life with a scarcity mindset, you can generate limiting beliefs. These are what may be causing you anxiety.
If you repeat these limiting beliefs continually, you can cause yourself unneded stress and anxiety.
This leaves you especially vulnerable. Because as an introvert you do not verbalize your thoughts to others where they can be checked and questioned ( if they are incessarily negative.)
Repeating negative or limiting thoughts is a common mistake to avoid. Lets get a better feel about how they could be causing you anxiety.
How mindset beliefs manifest anxiety for introverts
This diagram explains how limiting beliefs can cause anxiety for introverts.
How to read this diagram:
First:
Put your hand over the red box on the left, and look at this yellow diagram. This is how your beliefs work together to express your identity.
Together these beliefs control your mindset for career, money, relationship and other areas.
Next:
Uncover that red box as part of the diagram. Completely changes it.
Now you can see how negative beliefs might affect how you feel about yourself, especially if your repeat them in your self-talk or affirmations.
- Limiting beliefs are fear-based, negative beliefs that you learned from experiencing hurt, being wounded or are just innate
- If you repeat these as negative self-talk or affirmations to yourself, this could cause anxiety in your mindset
As an introvert, most of your internal communication stays within yourself. This means limiting beliefs can be especially toxic.
If you repeat negative self-talk, it multiplies the anxiety.
Because the majority of your communication is internal self-communication. This makes it even more important to cultivate healthy positive beliefs in yourself.
Luckily, you can avoid this common mistake. Limiting beliefs can be programmed out with affirmations in 4 to 6 weeks, using my methods.
You replace them by cultivating healthy, positive, stress-free beliefs. My one week home study course shows you how.
How to better manage mild introvert anxiety so you can find the best jobs
Unless it is a severe medical condition, mild anxiety can be lessened and ameliorated by managing your mindset.
Eliminating your limiting beliefs is a key to this. I strongly focus on it in my courses and workshops.
The more you reduce your anxiety, the greater the likelihood that you can clear your blockages. This clears the way to be free to find the career or business you are meant for.
Addressing limiting beliefs is an essential aspect of reducing an introvert’s stress and anxiety so you can find the best jobs.
Reducing anxiety allows introverts to avoid common problems you suffer with:
- Your anxiety may be causing you to stay in a job where you are bored, stressed, underemployed or underpaid
- You may be going after less of a job than you are capable
- Your anxiety may be a factor in procrastinating about making a career change, or being reluctant to get out of a narrow comfort zone or be unmotivated
- You may feel overwhelmed right now
- Your fear beliefs may lead your anxiety to cause you to be perfectionist, and can stall your career path and personal growth
- You don’t want to spend your life in regret in the wrong job, wishing it were different
If you want to give yourself an advantage in finding jobs, you have to put a little focus on cultivating positive beliefs. To build a positive mindset like Elon Musk.
Finding the perfect job for introverts with anxiety is my goal here. And in my experience managing your mindset beliefs is a key to managing that anxiety.
It is why all my workshops and home study courses include modules on cultivating positive beliefs and eliminating negative beliefs.
Final thoughts
I trust you find my approach helpful. There are 3 main points I hope you take from this:
- Follow the example of Elon Musk: don’t allow your personality type to limit your job search to a little box of career choices
- The key to making a low stress job choice is to uncover the career you are truly meant for – where you are comfortable and in control
- If you want to limit your anxiety, negative self-talk is your number one enemy. This means your number one priority should be to let go of limiting beliefs while cultivating positive beliefs. My home study courses show you how
As an introvert with anxiety, the way to making low stress job choices is to discover the career you are truly meant for. Where you are in control.
If you are ready to uncover your Career Destiny, my Free Career Discovery Guide shows you how.
Unlock your Career Destiny today with my FREE Report
In How to Unlock your Career Destiny, I reveal the 5 Secrets that every
jobseeker must know to find the job they will love for a lifetime
Note: This article was written by a real human, based on his experience and deep research in the career discovery field. (Not an AI program which simply scrapes, copies and rehashes other articles into a bland, copycat mess.)
About the author:
Larry LaFata is founder of defineyourcareer.com, and a Career Discovery Coach.
He is dedicated to help you discover your Career Destiny, regardless of your background, education or experience.
Larry’s innovative courses include:
- Define Your Career Destiny a one week home study course
- Career Destiny Workshop for Friends, a two hour online business discovery workshop guided by a career discovery coach
- Career Development Planning Workshops
