Being Thankful In Your Job Search?!?

Being Thankful In Your Job Search?!?
As posted on www.thewisejobsearch.com

What??? Many of you read this and think that's nuts… right?

Being Thankful in the process of having to look for a new source of income for your family? Being Thankful while hoping that your career progression hasn't been set back years? Being Thankful while one potential job opportunity after another seems to be going up in smoke? Being Thankful while savings that were hard to build are slipping away day by day?

Yes… Thankful!

Here's what I mean…

Attitude First! Chuck Swindoll writes… "I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it." As I've often said… One of the toughest, yet most important things to do in a job search is to maintain a positive attitude. Many people have bad things happen to them. Some people seem to be crushed by relatively minor bad events in their lives while others seem to go through severe difficulties with cheer and a bright outlook on life. Attitude is not the result of someone's circumstances, but rather the result of how they choose to look at life regardless of their circumstances. Choosing to be thankful even in your job loss will make all the difference in the world in your networking calls, meetings, and interviews. Decide that you will be thankful and you just might find your job search effort start to produce better results.

You're learning skills! You are learning what it takes to conduct a job search in todays market. You may think… "Thanks, but no thanks." However, learning how to find a job in this tough job market may be one of the most valuable long-term skills you may ever learn. In the world today, you will likely have to look for a job again in a few years… and possibly every few years for the rest of your career. Lifetime jobs are extremely rare anymore. Building a network now, and learning how to be more proactive in your search (as is necessary today), you will be much better prepared and more quickly successful the next time around. If you had not been forced into learning it now, you may have had to learn it down the road when it might be even tougher. Be thankful for the lifetime skills you are gaining!

You're evaluating yourself! When things are going along relatively smoothly, few of us ever take the time to take a look at ourselves much. We don't think about what makes us tick. We don't evaluate our strengths or weaknesses. We don't evaluate our successes and failures, and what factors contributed to each. We don't spend much time thinking about what job we would like to do most… or least. We don't think about what's most important to us in terms of income, career progression, family, faith, or other interests. Generally, in a job search, we are compelled to consider all these things. The result of this evaluation is usually a better sense of self, that can create a greater sense of confidence and conviction in whatever we decide to pursue. It also can enrich our lives greatly if we determine to balance our lives more appropriately than we may have before. Much to be thankful for.

It's a whole new world! Most job seekers tend not to look at the opportunity their circumstances present. A job search is a chance to break out of old ruts and patterns. It's an opportunity to gain new experience in a new environment, with new people, and with new leadership. It's a chance to re-invent yourself, or prove to yourself that you can add value to others in a different situation as well. It's a chance to explore the possibilities, to find opportunities you didn't know existed, or to finally jump into an opportunity you've been eying over the fence for a while. Focus on the opportunity that lies before you rather than the lost past and you will find there's a lot to be thankful for.

Being thankful in your circumstances is key to maintaining a positive attitude as well as a happier life. Take stock of the opportunity you've really been given and decide you will look at things in a more productive light!