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Positive Attitude Tips: How to Stay Motivated Until You WinI’m pleased to offer you these positive attitude tips as an introduction to this important section on staying motivated and conquering the job search blues. You’ll find these positive attitude tips particularly helpful if you’re struggling to keep your job search going or worried that you’re losing momentum.
Hello, and welcome to my Staying Motivated Hub Page. My name is Eric Weir and I help people every day who are down on their luck, ready to give up, or absolutely fed up with the hoops that employers make them jump through just to find a job. I also know how this feels from my own personal experience. I’ve been out of work several times over the years, and I’ve “been there” enough to know that the biggest threats or challenges to our job search success are loneliness, isolation and depression. And the best way we can counteract these is through learning how to build and maintain our job search confidence. If I can help you do this through positive attitude tips your job search will be so much easier, and likely a lot shorter too. Let’s start with 6 positive attitude tips for staying motivated throughout our job search: Positive Attitude Tips - #1 – Never Wait The most important of my positive attitude tips is to not play "the waiting game." It’s so important that we keep going, keep moving in our job search and never wait for an interview to be scheduled or job offer decision to come through. Waiting is absolute poison to your job search. Continue your full-time job search until you’re offered a really good opportunity. Don’t wait on the results of any one particular application, interview or negotiation. Keep on top of your situation by continuing to take action, take the initiative and lead. Waiting is a very weak position to put ourselves in, and it deflates our energy and motivation. We start thinking that the opportunity we’re waiting for is the only option we have – and before very long, it is! We start feeling impatient and frustrated toward the employer we’re waiting for. Then we start making multiple attempts to reach the employer. We call or email our human resources contact, leaving her several messages. In the end we sound desperate, needy, fearful and unprofessional and lose all the credibility we previously built with her. In contrast to waiting, staying active maintains a “position of strength” in our job search. If we keep digging up and responding to new opportunities then we’ll never need to feel or be dependent on any one job opportunity or employer. Much better is the confident attitude, “Well, I know that if I don’t get this job then surely I’ll get another!” We remain in charge of our own job search and career destiny, and keep our options open for an even better opportunity to come up in the meantime – and it often does! When the employer calls – regardless of whether it’s to offer us a job or turn our application down – we sound strong, professional and just downright impressive. The job search is a process whereby we build momentum – first through networking, then writing resumes and cover letters followed by conducting interviews and salary negotiations. Keep your momentum going by always staying open to new possibilities! Play the field! :-) Just as it isn’t always wise to form a long-term romantic relationship with the first person you meet, so it’s not always good to accept your first job offer, and it’s that much worse to wait on it. If you have many “irons in your fire” or “eggs in your basket” then you can pick and choose rather than limiting yourself unnecessarily. This can also help you when you’re negotiating your salary and benefits, because you know that you don’t have to accept the employer’s offer unless it’s truly right for you – you can always consider another offer. This is true confidence, backed up by the reality of your intelligence and hard work. Never wait. Keep going no matter what, no matter how promising an opportunity may seem. Be open to, and optimistic and enthusiastic about the possibility of finding work at any time. On the other hand, don’t absolutely expect to be offered any particular position that you apply for. Positive Attitude Tips - #2 – Don’t Push Yourself Related to this “push and pull” pattern of not waiting is an equally important positive attitude tip of making sure that you don’t push yourself either. While it’s crucial to stay active and motivated throughout your job search, it’s never a good idea to push ourselves, such as by expecting that we’re a) going to get a certain number of interviews, b) conduct a perfect interview (there’s really no such thing) or c) find a job within a certain short period of time such as one month. The extra pressure that we put on ourselves this way can actually backfire and prevent us from achieving those same goals that we’ve so aggressively set for ourselves. Rather than feeling cool, calm and collected we instead feel internally competitive and self-critical. We then inevitably reflect upon or project onto others – either as unexpected anger or unnecessary anxiety and timidity. Then, the other people we’re interacting with end up feeling that way too whenever they’re around us. Our job search falters and we continue to struggle until we break this bad habit. We best not put pressure on ourselves at networking events either, such as by expecting ourselves to meet everyone there, get our “script” just right or find a hot job lead that quickly gets us hired. We’ll experience much more success if we attend knowing that we could hit “paydirt” by relaxing, enjoying the event, speaking naturally and openly to people and just “being ourselves.” :-) One way we can soften our striving is to focus on the job search process, not just end results. If we’re suffering from this internal pressure, it’s better to set an intermediate goal to create a bridge for us. For instance, we could focus on making a certain number of new employer or industry contacts each week rather than holding the goal of “finding a job” too tightly. In a nutshell, a “realistic goal for today” keeps you feeling confident and focused on moving forward whereas a goal that’s not immediately reachable can put too much pressure on you and prevent you from noticing, celebrating and building upon your smaller successes. Positive Attitude Tips - #3 – Balance Activity with Rest One of the most underrated positive attitude tips is to take time to rest or take a break from your job search activities at least one day each week. It’s also important to take regular meal and snack breaks through the day, just as you would in a regular job. In this way, job searching is similar to being a self-employed entrepreneur. If you don’t rest, you’ll lose your “edge” and may appear to employers and networking contacts as hurried, exhausted or “worn thin” – definitely not “employment material.” :-) Not taking time to rest sends the message to both ourselves and others that we’re not poised, relaxed or confident. It’s as if we don’t believe in ourselves and our skills and experience enough to trust that we can take some time for ourselves away from our job search and know that we will find a job in due course. Reduce your stress by going for neighbourhood walks (my personal favourite!). You could also write down your troubling thoughts, meditate, listen to relaxing music, hang out at a local cafe for a little while with a supportive friend (and maybe do some networking there) or go to the gym or pool to work out. What other stress-relieving activities work best for you? Think about it and see if you’ve forgotten any from the past that really helped you. A final stress management tip is to simplify your life as much as possible while you’re job searching. Goodness knows your job search makes your life complicated enough! Positive Attitude Tips - #4 – Remember that it’s not Personal In keeping a positive attitude, it’s important to always consider that the challenges and obstacles you’re experiencing may be just simply part of the “human condition.” In other words, they’re not personal towards you. Almost everyone of all ages and walks of life have gone through the same sort of thing that you’re currently going through in your career through no fault of their own. Rejections, whether at the resume or interview stage, are not personal either. You’re dealing with people who have a job to do – pick who they think is the best-fitting candidate for their vacancy. It most often has nothing to do with you as a person or individual – it’s a very impersonal process and it’s important for you to always keep that in the front of your mind. Positive Attitude Tips - #5 – Check Your Facts and Guard Yourself Against Negative Information Sometimes we can experience a job search letdown after receiving discouraging information. Then, we’re discouraged even further when we eventually find out that the information we received is false and we missed out on a great job opportunity because of our misunderstanding. Many myths and much false information lurks within the employment counseling field. You’ll likely come across some information that's controversial, if not simply untrue. Such false information can result in a false belief that holds you back from great success in your career. This is especially true for crucial information that will lead you to make important career or job search decisions. A common example of false information is advice from co-workers about how to apply for jobs internally and what the rules or guidelines are. Perhaps someone tells you that you don't have a realistic chance at a position that greatly interests you, and you believe them without checking with your human resources department. Later, you find out that your co-worker gave you the wrong information. It's always good to check crucial information with human resources - the "horse's mouth." And get it in an email while you're at it, to keep them accountable as well. In a nutshell: Please check all information carefully, especially information that casts doubts on your abilities or your chances of success. Do your “due diligence” and don’t believe anything unless and until you find convincing evidence to back it up! Positive Attitude Tips - #6 – Never Give Up! The last of my positive attitude tips is a brief but special reminder that my father sometimes gave me in times of trouble: Never give up! Keep on keeping on. Keep moving toward your job search and career goals, even if your progress seems slow or has to go a few steps back temporarily before moving forward again. If you
persevere
you’ll make it and it’ll all be worth it in the end, both for your career and your
personal development
needs. Go for it!
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