Lately I have heard from friends and coaching clients the despair they feel about the current labour market. For the most part, the people who are despairing missed the last difficult labour market (from a seller’s point of view – i.e. you) of the late 80’s, early 90’s. These folk have only ever experience a seller’s market and have rarely voluntarily been out of work in the last fifteen years. Now they are finding themselves 3 – 9 months plus unemployed. This of course can be disheartening, but it is not uncommon in this type of market.
So I figured there must be a few people out there in internet land facing regular rejection and feeling frustrated and worried.
I cannot stress enough that the key to all success is having and maintaining a VERY POSITIVE MINDSET! Yes I understand that times are tough, but once you start focusing on negatives it is a quick downward spiral. Trust me, the spiral is like a spinning top and can easily get out of control. SO STOP IT NOW! And once you find yourself in a good negative state, everything will appear to go wrong and then you’ll get what you expect (your worst fears), because that is what you insisted on bringing into your reality by continually focusing on it.
I take a Quantum Physics approach to coaching, which put simply means “YOU CREATE YOUR OWN REALITY”. You create your own reality by the thoughts you chose to focus on, the actions you choose to take and the reactions or responses you choose to have to your experiences. Put simply, you get what you expect or what you imagine. So IMAGINE BIG and HAVE POSITIVE EXPECTATIONS. PS – you can’t just kid yourself into this state you need to fundamentally believe it to convince your unconscious mind of your buy-in (see later).
So what can you do to keep POSITIVE in such an environment?
• Firstly, I’d ask you to read my previous blogs and make sure you are giving yourself a fighting chance in the first place in this labour market by utilising the advice so far.
• If you are currently in a very negative space you need to understand you WILL NOT get a job. No employer wants negative staff! So if you are feeling down or low on motivation, get a Career Coach NOW (see below for special offer).
If you have already allowed the negativing to develop into a depressed or anxious state for you, you need to get to your doctor ASAP! PLEASE, take action NOW!
• DON’T take rejection personally. IT IS NOT PERSONAL! So stop making it about you! When you make things about you, you feed your sense of not being good enough and very soon you will start a negative spiral which will take your self esteem and confidence with it!
• Every NO THANKS is an opportunity for you to LEARN FORWARD! What I mean by that is to consider why you didn’t get shortlisted and put the learning forward into future applications. Take the time to reflect on your application. Did you meet 100% of the selection criteria (experience, industry, qualifications, skills, knowledge)? If not, then that’ll be the reason. REMEMBER that the market has changed. Employers are no longer desperate and taking 60-70% of the suitability, now the tables have turned they want 100% suitability, because they know they can easily get it now!
• So take all NO THANKS as feedback that you are applying for the wrong type of job or as a need to improve your application technique. If you feel like you have put in a great application and meet 100% of the criteria, get on the phone and ask for some honest feedback. Most people are happy to provide this.
• Get PERSPECTIVE! Remember there are at least 400 applicants per job vacancy so it’s not unusual to get more rejections in this market! So take it in your stride. A great response to each rejection, is ‘FANTASTIC, I’m getting closer to my dream job, what can I now learn?’
• Release all negative thoughts now!!! Start noticing your negative self talk (thoughts running through your head) and reframe them to positive thoughts. If you are in a negative state of mind, your family and friends will notice, but may not be game enough to say anything! So, ask someone you trust to notice when you say or infer negativity in the moment you say it, so you can start to spot your negative self talk. This is where a NLP/CBT coach like My Performance Coach has a phenomenal and lasting impact on clients. We assist you to quickly reshape your self-talk, behaviours, actions and response both consciously and unconsciously to strong, empowering, positive positions.
• Take control of your application process. Make sure you follow my tips and apply for roles you have a good chance of getting and are also excited about. There is nothing worse than applying for loads of jobs because you are desperate. Firstly you are asking for more rejections and secondly you might get caught out in your desperation! Do you think a clued up employer could spot desperation? Well, let’s take a recent example of one of my new clients.
This client recently applied for a job in a very bureaucratic organisation. The one big de-motivator for her is a lot of bureaucracy. But she was desperate for a role, and decided consciously she could deal to it. But she underestimated her unconscious mind (where her true beliefs reside)! The interview was going phenomenally well and she felt like she had a great shot at the job. It was a second interview and between her and one other. Then the employer asked her – what frustrates you?
She said bureaucracy and then went on to talk about her dislike for it! Now this client is highly intelligent, but she was not paying attention and her truth came out and she got caught out in her desperation! What’s more she didn’t realise what she’d done until later! When she didn’t get the role she rang and asked why. Lo and behold, the employer said ‘because you get frustrated with bureaucracy and we are a very bureaucratic organisation and we don’t feel like it would be a good fit for us’.
So, the moral of the story, apply for jobs that fit with you and do everything possible to ensure you maintain a strong, positive, self confident disposition.
If you have any questions, please email me or post a comment.
My Performance Coach is offering 15% off our standard fees for career coaching for anyone who quotes this blog. But be quick, OFFER ENDS 10 July 2009.
Good luck!
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