Career development is a key consideration for those looking for a satisfied and happy life. While some individuals are more suited for entrepreneurship, there are many more that operate better in a corporate environment. For such individuals, development and realization of their potential through their career paths is a key determinant of how they view their own self-worth. And yet repeated errors on this path can often lead to positions that do not let you fully flex your capability muscles, leaving you operating at less than full potential. This article chooses to focus on the top ten career development errors that prevent you from reaching your optimal productivity.

1. Choosing the wrong career for your nature: This is probably the most primeval of all the reasons for failing in a career - simply being unsuitable for it. This is also one of the reasons why many interviewers spend a lot of time explaining the job, and assessing your nature rather than asking technical questions. You may know the details of your job inside out, but may be a complete misfit so that you will never be truly productive or enjoy the work. And this negative, low energy will tell on not only your morale and health, but that of the rest of the company. Know thyself, and choose a career path that suits your temperament.
2. Choosing a career whose time is long past: We have a tendency to drive by looking at the rear-view mirror. Past tends to dictate much of our actions in the present, which then dictates our fortunes in the future. Being forward looking, while more uncertain, is the only way to decide your career. Thus, while being a railroad engineer might have been a great job at one time, today it is not a hot sector - in-spite of resurgence in rail freight activity. Similarly, working on the trading floor of the NYSE was once a sought after profession - but with the inroads being made by electronic trading, this once glamorous position is going the way of the dinosaurs. Keep the future firmly in view before making a choice.
3. Choosing a position that you cannot deliver on: Your nature and the marketplace may intersect at more than a few points. For example, you may have the nature to work well in the high-pressure hedge-fund industry, but not the education and tools to actually deliver on the demands in that industry. This often happens when one has unrealistic expectations from oneself - instead, staying honest and as close to truth as possible will deliver the results you seek.
4. Working in a position that you are not passionate about: Passion is a matter of the heart - it cannot be manufactured. Sometimes the sheer momentum of work can carry you far, fostered by positive feedback - but that does not necessarily imply you are passionate about that work. It just means you are riding the momentum. True passion stems from a desire to be in that field at that point in time and simply knowing that you are meant to do the work that lies in front of you. Creativity and new ideas as well as a more responsive and benign world open up for you since you are now letting life to live through you. Any other position implies you are operating at less than full capacity and in a direction not in alignment with where life is flowing and evolving into.
5. Working in a position where the environment does not encourage innovation: If you are passionate about your work, you need an environment that welcomes new ideas and allows you to build upon them. An environment which suppresses creativity and innovation is not one where life will thrive - for life is beauty itself, and beauty seeks to evolve, to create new things. Align yourself with life.
6. Working in a position where the people do not energize you: People are as much a part of your job as are the tools, techniques and your mission. Working with individuals who do not inspire you, teach you, befriend you and overall increase the positive energy in your life - are people who are best left behind in your journey towards a fulfilling career. Of course, the people you work with change over time, so this situation has to be continually re-evaluated - and occasionally, the person who has to change or move is yourself.
7. Saying "No" to good work: A classic error. Your ability to distinguish good works from poor or ordinary work must be keen - and you should never say "No" to good work. Often, if you are deeply entrenched in your work, you will recognize good work even before it has been formally introduced to you. Good work brings good opportunities in its wake. Avoiding them closes doors that would have otherwise allowed you to fulfill your potential.
8. Saying "Yes" to work that are simply "energy leaks": This is the flip side of the previous issue, whereby you spend your time in working with associations and committees with no net result or benefit to the company at large or to your work that you are really interested in. Sometimes, we say "yes" in these situations to simply keep a few friends in good humor - but these are serious energy leaks - and prevent you from accomplishing your goals.
9. Disagreeing with the company strategy yet hanging on at the job: Every company has a few select strategies that may change over time depending on the set of people leading the company at any given time. If you disagree with the company strategy, it will directly affect your work. This does not imply not having an independent opinion - but to realize that in most cases, it may simply be a different point of view or direction that the leaders want the company to take than what you think might be best. The time to argue these decisions are when they are being made - but once made, it is best to move those strategies forward with full agreement - or to move on to a different firm.
10. Not willing to simplify your boss' job: Ultimately, you are working at your company to simplify your superior's job - creating value, providing new ideas, helping in negotiations - and so forth so that your boss can use that time to explore new frontiers and bring in new opportunities that would not have been possible to do otherwise. This chain of help builds up to the top and the overall company prospers. If your focus instead remains in simply wrapping up what has been handed down to you, your value to the firm remains limited and your full potential - your ability to lead and direct - remains hidden from full view.

If you simply avoid these top ten career development errors, you will find yourself rising into prominence, and having the ability to unleash your full potential more easily.