Two optometrists can qualify at roughly the same time, complete similar pre-registration training and begin their careers in very similar practices.
Five years later, their careers can look completely different.
One is mentoring newly qualified colleagues, taking responsibility for more complex patients, exploring enhanced services and beginning to think about clinical leadership. The other is still perfectly capable clinically, but hesitates when opportunities appear. They second-guess decisions, avoid unfamiliar situations and regularly tell themselves they need “a bit more experience” before taking the next step.
Sometimes there are perfectly practical reasons for that difference. Opportunity, personal circumstances, employers and location all matter.
But after years of speaking to people about their careers, I think there is another factor we sometimes underestimate.
The way people see themselves.
Your mindset does not replace clinical ability, experience or proper training. But it has an enormous influence over what you eventually do with them.
The Conversation Nobody Else Hears
Every optical professional has an internal commentary running throughout the working day.
A newly qualified optometrist encounters something unfamiliar and thinks, I should know this.
A dispensing optician sees a management vacancy and thinks, I’m probably not experienced enough.
An Optical Assistant considers asking about progression but decides, They won’t take me seriously yet.
Most of these thoughts disappear without anybody else hearing them.
But they still influence behaviour.
If you repeatedly tell yourself you are not ready, eventually you stop putting yourself into situations where you could become ready.
You do not apply. You do not volunteer. You do not ask. You remain inside the areas where you already feel competent.
And because you are not gaining the new experience, the original belief appears to be confirmed.
See? I’m still not ready.
That cycle can continue for years.
Confidence in the Test Room Is Built, Not Discovered
Think about a newly qualified optometrist seeing a patient and constantly questioning their own judgement.
They might apologise unnecessarily. They may repeat parts of the examination because they do not trust the first result. They might ask a more experienced colleague to confirm decisions they are actually perfectly capable of making themselves.
There is nothing wrong with asking for help. Knowing when to seek another opinion is part of being a responsible clinician.
But there is a difference between appropriate professional caution and believing that somebody else must always know better than you.
Now imagine the same clinician approaching things slightly differently.
I’m still learning, but my training has prepared me for this. If I need help, I’ll ask.
That is not arrogance.
It is probably a much more accurate assessment of the situation.
They still check things. They still reflect. They still ask questions when appropriate. But they gradually give themselves permission to make decisions.
And every decision made successfully adds another small piece of evidence:
I can do this.
That is how professional confidence tends to develop. Not through suddenly waking up one morning feeling completely confident, but through accumulating evidence that you can handle increasingly difficult situations.
The Labels You Give Yourself Matter
This is not limited to optometrists.
I have spoken with Optical Assistants who describe themselves as “just an assistant”, despite effectively holding together huge parts of the patient journey.
They know the patients. They understand the diary. They support pre-screening. They solve problems at reception. They understand which colleagues work well together and often spot issues long before management does.
Yet the word just tells you something about how they perceive their contribution.
The same happens with Dispensing Opticians.
Someone can spend years developing excellent technical knowledge, building patient relationships, supporting colleagues and resolving difficult dispensing situations, yet still believe leadership belongs to somebody else.
Then another DO with similar experience begins thinking differently.
They volunteer to help train newer colleagues. They contribute to discussions about frames or lenses. They become interested in how the practice performs commercially. They start suggesting improvements rather than simply noticing problems.
Eventually a management opportunity appears.
From the outside, it can look as though they suddenly progressed.
They did not.
Their behaviour had been moving towards that position for a long time.
This Is Not About Pretending Everything Is Positive
There is an important distinction here.
Mindset should never become a convenient way of dismissing genuine problems in optical practice.
If testing times are compromising patient care, telling yourself to “think positively” is not the answer. If you are consistently understaffed, the problem may genuinely be staffing. If your employer provides no meaningful opportunity for development, eventually you may need to find one that does.
Optics has real pressures. Busy Saturdays are real. Commercial expectations exist. Difficult patients exist. Clinical responsibility carries weight.
Mindset does not make those things disappear.
What it can change is the question you ask next.
Instead of:
Why does this always happen to me?
You might ask:
What part of this can I actually influence?
That question produces very different behaviour.
Watch What Happens on a Difficult Saturday
Saturday mornings provide a surprisingly good example.
You arrive and look at the diary. It is packed. There are complicated patients, a contact lens appointment squeezed into the afternoon and almost no breathing room.
Your first thought is:
This is going to be horrendous.
Nothing has happened yet.
But mentally, the day already has a verdict.
Now compare that with:
This is a demanding clinic. I’ll need to stay organised and communicate well with the team.
The diary has not changed.
Your interpretation has.
That interpretation affects how you walk into the first appointment, how you respond when reception interrupts you and how quickly you recover when something inevitably runs late.
One mindset anticipates defeat.
The other anticipates difficulty but assumes capability.
That is a subtle difference with very practical consequences.
Stop Using Other People’s Confidence Against Yourself
Optical professionals also compare themselves constantly.
You watch a senior optometrist handle something effortlessly and think, I’ll never be that confident.
But you are comparing your current ability with somebody else’s accumulated experience.
Instead, become curious.
What exactly do they do well?
Perhaps they explain pathology particularly clearly. Maybe their patient questioning is exceptionally structured. Perhaps they stay remarkably calm when they are uncertain.
Those are things you can observe and practise.
The same applies to management, dispensing and patient communication.
“I’ll never be as good as them” gives you nowhere to go.
“What are they doing that I could learn?” gives you a next step.
Recruitment Interviews Reveal Mindset Very Quickly
You can often hear this difference when people talk about their careers.
Ask somebody about a difficult previous role and one candidate might spend ten minutes explaining everything the employer did wrong.
Sometimes their criticism is completely justified.
But another candidate might acknowledge exactly the same problems and then explain what they learned from them.
They might say that the experience taught them to communicate expectations earlier, become more organised during busy clinics or understand what kind of practice environment allows them to perform at their best.
They are not pretending the situation was wonderful.
They have simply decided that the experience will become useful.
Employers notice that.
Practice owners are rarely expecting candidates to have experienced perfect careers. They are interested in what somebody does when things are imperfect.
Be Careful With the Word “Just”
If you are feeling stuck in your optical career, listen carefully to the language you use when describing yourself.
I’m just an Optical Assistant.
I’m only part-time.
I’ve only worked in multiples.
I’m not really management material.
I’m not experienced enough yet.
Some of those statements may contain useful information.
But are they facts, or have they become identities?
There is a significant difference between saying, “I haven’t managed a practice before” and “I’m not management material.”
The first describes your current experience.
The second predicts your future.
Be careful about turning today’s circumstances into tomorrow’s limits.
You Don’t Need Fake Confidence
Changing your mindset does not mean standing in front of the mirror every morning declaring that you are the greatest optometrist in Britain.
Start with something more useful.
Accuracy.
Instead of I’m terrible at contact lenses, try:
I need more experience with contact lenses.
Instead of I’m not confident enough to manage, try:
There are leadership skills I still need to develop.
Instead of I always struggle with difficult patients, try:
I need a better way of handling these conversations.
Those statements still acknowledge the problem.
But they leave the door open.
And that matters.
Your Career Eventually Reflects What You Repeatedly Do
Optical careers are long.
Over decades, you will work with different teams, different managers, different patients and perhaps completely different parts of the profession.
Many things will influence where you eventually end up.
But one thing travels with you into every practice: the story you tell yourself about what you are capable of becoming.
Pay attention to it.
Because confidence influences whether you speak up. Whether you apply. Whether you ask for feedback. Whether you pursue further qualifications. Whether you volunteer for something unfamiliar. Whether you recover from mistakes or allow them to define you.
You do not need to believe that you can do everything.
You need to believe that you can learn.
And sometimes that small distinction is enough to change the direction of an entire career.
