Got job search stress?
When we’re out of work, or searching for it, we often forget, or fail to take seriously, vital stress-relieving strategies that support our emotional well being. Consider and take action around these tools to strengthen your health…and therefore your ability to survive and succeed in our challenging and changing work realities.
Control
Ask not what you can do for a potential employer, but what a potential employer can do for you. Feeling in control is vital to stress reduction, so inject this mindset into your job search and interviews to inoculate you against some of the stress of this process. Ask prospective employers about their mission, expectations, work environment and other traits important to you, a technique that also communicates confidence, self-respect and skill under pressure.
Your Successes
List your many strengths from building efficient project teams to baking ‘top chef’ chocolate cupcakes. Because various forms of rejection are common job search ingredients that can eat away at our self-concept, regularly review your impressive skills to reinforce your self-esteem and confidence.
Support
Convene and consult people who praise, encourage, and if necessary, thoughtfully criticize you. Think of them as essential members of your job search team who motivate you to keep going and catch you if you fall behind.
Noise Reduction
Go on a media diet by cutting back on the constant feed of news about stubborn unemployment numbers, rising debt, etc. Beyond appropriately figuring current events into your job search strategy, this information does little more than ramp up our stress and wear down our spirits.
Breaks
Balance the stress of your job search by working out, volunteering, basket weaving or taking part in other enjoyable activities that temporarily take you away from the job of job hunting. And try to kiss goodbye any guilt from doing so because these breaks strengthen your psyche, body and therefore your ability to find work.
About The Author
Jordan Friedman, aka The Stress Coach, helps thousands of stressed and anxious people worldwide work, sleep and feel better. He is a pioneer of stress management and wellness promotion, first as director of Columbia University’s Health Education Program and now as President of The Stress Coach, a chill factory that produces stress reduction training programs and resources.
