Musings of an Unemployed, Employable Woman! (Day 1)

Alison's top tips on how to build your resilience and stay sane when job hunting!

Mantra of the week: 'Every setback is a setup for a comeback. I will learn, adapt, and rise stronger.'

Top Tip of the Day: Remember you're the Rock Star of your own life! Keep that sense of belief and check your mindset!

You are the rock star of your own life.? You’ve done your 10,000 hours of practise and become an expert in your field – you have a unique set of skills that no one else has.? You’re at the top of your game and the hits keep on coming!?

Then something happens to change your course.? Maybe you’ve fallen out of fashion and people don't get your kind of rock stardom anymore!? Maybe your last gig flopped?? Your album didn't go to number 1?? Or maybe you just wanted to try a different genre of music (it worked for Beyonce after all!)? So, what now?? Will you give up? ?Or will you get back in that recording studio, back on stage and try again?

Perseverance when job searching is super important.? I’ve found my emotions are up and down. ?At best I’m like Teflon nothing affects me, I’m in the zone, reading job ad after job ad, and at worst I’m like the living dead – I just can’t look at anymore job ads – why oh why do they all sound the same and they’re so long!?? It’s just soul destroying!? So, I’ve had to come up with strategies to help keep my mind perky and my soul upbeat and focused. ?

As my Mum used to say – ‘you’re never sent anything you can’t handle’.? In other words, you’ll learn from every experience you have, the importance is to just keep trying, keep believing you are the amazing rock star that you once were and believe that you will get to number 1 again.? It’s all about mindset and believing that things will get better.?

Staying positive when we have setbacks or go through some form of rejection can be tough, so we need to find ways of keeping a positive mindset.? These are the things that are helping me I hope they help you too:

Stay Jolly, Job Seekers!

• Remember you are amazing!? Find a positive mantra and keep repeating it over and over - deal with the gremlins of self-doubt and worry - to quote Ted Lasso - 'BELIEVE' that it's going to be good, and someone somewhere is going to be super lucky to have you!
• Surround yourself with your biggest fans – talk to your family, friends, ex-Colleagues, people who'll help you keep believing in yourself and your kind of awesomeness.
• Reflect and keep a journal - write in it daily. I’m not great at this so make myself sit still and write.? Writing down how I feel every day is helping me stay level and positive.? My Mum was a great advocate of writing down feelings – usually in form of a letter when someone had upset her, she would poor her heart out, put it in a drawer and then go back to it in a week, if she still felt the same she would send the letter to the person she wrote it to!? (I received my fair share of her letters over the years!)? I’m not suggesting anyone starts writing letters, but reflecting on your progress is a way of documenting the now, and then in the future looking back to how far you’ve come.
• Act on feedback - that's if it's good advice - if it's not fair or balanced or doesn't make sense to you, then your options are to allow people their opinion, bin it and don't look at it again or really do some soul searching and ask yourself ‘as uncomfortable as this might be, do they have a point’?
• Get comfy with rejection and honest feedback - remember if they don't want you it wasn't meant to be, and there's something better out there for you!? Move on quickly and keep going!? Some of the biggest rock stars in the world were rejected more times than they had hits so just keep on believing in yourself and your abilities.
• Get outdoors, reconnect with nature and be active.? Just moving your body will make you feel better and getting outdoors really does help reset your mind.? Go hug that tree!
• Do something creative – I love to sew, and this is helping me stay positive and gives me a sense of achievement as well as a new outfit at the end of the process. ?What can you do, learn or create to give you a sense of achievement?
• ‘Create don’t consume’ - If like me you find that you often lose at least 2 hours a day on social media mindlessly looking at really cute puppies doing funny stuff, or highly successful people who quite frankly often make me feel completely inadequate, then it might be time to say to yourself ‘create don’t consume’ – it’s usually enough to get me up and moving towards achieving something.? Try it!
• Keep up to date on the latest trends in the area of your expertise - knowing what's going on in the world, staying relevant, studying, reading, watching TED talks etc, helps you focus on what you're going after and also helps to reframe some of your thinking. Use this time to gain new insights.

Thought of the day for recruiters out there who want to help candidates keep a positive mindset:

• Remember there is a human being on the other end of every CV - be kind you don't know their full story and they might be feeling vulnerable – especially if they’re unemployed.? Offer your expertise, listen to them, coach, and support them - you'll get recommendations out of it for sure if you go the extra mile to help them.

If anyone has any other pearls of wisdom for the unemployed, employable Rock Stars amongst us, please do comment in the comments and do feel free to repost.? I’d love to hear from you!

Good luck all! Onwards and Upwards!

Alison