Last week, in a teleclass I gave to 450+ women who want breakthrough to a bold plan for more happiness, success and reward, a great question came up: “Kathy, exactly how do we break through our career inertia?

My answer was simple – 100% commitment.  It takes committing to taking one action each and every day towards what you want.

Most people don't make change until they're desperately unhappy, or until some form of a crisis hits them.  It's universal – people are highly resistant to change, and they fear that the devil they know is better than the one they don't. 

That was me in my corporate career 12 years ago – I just would not take the necessary action until a brutal layoff in the days following 9/11 pushed me to my knees (see Breakdown, Breakthrough for more on that and 12 other inspiring stories of women's career transformation).  In order to break through your status quo of career pain, you have to take action, and a bold kind of action that's very different from what you've been doing all these years.

I've seen that there is a right way to look at your career – a perspective that opens the doors for growth, change, possibility and success – and a definite wrong way to think about it.  The wrong way keeps you  locked in a cycle of unhappiness, insecurity, fear, and pain.

Below are the 7 hallmarks of the wrong way to view your career and professional life:

1. “I'm stuck here.”