Do you know what thoughts and beliefs are unconsciously sabotaging your career dreams? Discover your career fear, the biggest free-floating anxiety churning through your mind. The scenario you want to avoid. Flip the fear around and create a powerful statement that affirms its opposite.

I recently asked LYJ client Marina to look five years into the future and name the situation she didn’t want to find herself in. She described a state of aimlessness, where she was without a solid skill or profession because she hadn’t lived up to her potential. This was her worst-case scenario. I asked her to flip this around and think of what the best-case scenario might be. Marina then described: “In five years, I’m realizing my potential. I’ve cultivated a skill set, doing work I enjoy that fulfills me. I’m on a path to advancement, and am able to support myself financially and securely.” The new version is a much more powerful vision and suggests actions to take.

In my early twenties, when I was unclear about my career path and lacking in confidence, I went through similar exercises in Jinny Ditzler’s Your Best Year Yet. The exercises ultimately helped me create a career affirmation, which read: “I know exactly what I want to do with my life, and I have the necessary tools to go do it.” Did I totally believe this? Not at the time. But when I pulled out the affirmation (or new paradigm as Ditzler calls it) many years later, I realized that within six months of writing it, I had secured a job that had put me on my path toward doing meaningful work.

Once you unearth your career fear and flip it around into a positive statement, print it out and display it where you can regularly see it. Your new statement will nourish new thoughts that will help you take active steps toward a meaningful career.