Category — Inspiration

Getting Your Great New Job is a five part series based on my experience coaching and helping my clients through their job searches and get great jobs.  Jobs that they are excited about and feel great about, better jobs than they’d been trying for, jobs that are a big step forward on a path toward their chosen future… yes, even in this economy.  You can have YOUR great job too!  This is Part 2 – Your Job Search.   See Article Introduction and Part 1-Your Inspiration

Your Job Search – Getting Your Great New Job

Hopefully now that you’ve read the first two posts of this series you’re thinking about that next job, your new job, in a new and positive way.  Thinking, just maybe, you get to have what you really want.  You’re thinking about working at something you’re passionate about.  This makes a huge difference when you’re looking for a job.  Now the search…

If you just said to someone, “ya, I’m looking for a job.  I work in I.T.  Do you know of any?” that’s not going to get you very far.  That’s what most people do when talking about needing a job.  They talk about what they used to do and that they want a job.  It doesn’t work and the more it doesn’t work, the worse it feels.  Let’s try a new way to search for your job that empowers you. 

Be Specific about what you want from your job, share your passion and get excited.  You’ve come up with ideas about what you really want in and from a job.  You’re more aware of your skills and what you have to offer.  Now get out there and talk about it.  Talking about something your passionate about makes a huge difference…it gets people interested… and that gets you excited too.  When you are specific and passionate, people love to help you.  When that happens, you feel less alone and the job search feels more possible. 

So, how?  If you have a certain type of experience (sales, computer, management, anything) and you’re passionate about say… physical health.  What kind of jobs are there that include both those things?  Let’s play with this so you’ll see what I mean… hmm… let’s say someone has ”sales” experience and they are passionate about ”physical health”.   Let’s say they went for a sales job at a gym, or that had something to do with nutrition… don’t you think they’d be more apt to get it than someone who is just a good sales person?

So, what about you.  What are your skills and what are you passionate about?  Now how can they fit together?  If you’re not sure, start talking about it and searching – get on line, talk to friends, talk to friends of friends, and strangers in coffee shops.  Go hang out in places where people that are interested in whatever it is go and talk to them.  Tell them your idea or ask your questions.

Let’s say you have project management experience and you’re really into boats and water and want to learn more about that, and be around people that share that interest.  (Are you starting to see how different this is than just saying, “yeah, I’m looking for a project management job”?)  

Start talking to people about what you really want, even if you’re not sure of the specifics.  Start talking to them about the job and the passion.  Think of people and places that may have some connection to that passion and start talking.  Share your passion.  You meet someone and say, “I’m looking for a job.  I have project management experience and I really want to get a job working around boat… I really enjoy… I spend a lot of time…I’m thinking of going to school to be a…and want to work in that industry.”

If the person you’re talking to has a passion for boats or knows someone who does they might have ideas for you.  It might be a great conversation that will lead you to the next step. A great company that they know of, the next person to talk to that might have more insight and information… a step forward.

Open up to the possibilities… if your passion was health care where would you hang out?  Who would you talk to?  There are so many possibilities.  It could be in the medical field, a gym, health food store, vitamin store, dance classes… the list goes on.  What type of people or type of group within that arena interests you?  If you’re not sure, ask people.  You don’t have to have all the answers and you don’t have to be 100% specific… share what you know you want and let others share their wisdom, ideas and connections.

Most people love to connect other people.  If you’re looking for a job and someone else is looking for an employee it makes them look like the hero… it’s a great thing to ask and let other people do things for you.  If they see the connection and think it would be a good thing they’ll do the work for you. 

When you talk to people it’s not just asking them for a job, you’re sharing information and your sharing your passion and hope.   How many people out there love their jobs or think of work in this way.  As you talk to them about this, it might just get them excited thinking about what they really want to do next too.  It’s not just asking for a job, it’s connecting, inspiring, having conversations about passion and purpose and possibility.  Take risks, build community, believe that you get to have what you want, that you can ask for help, and go for it.  Talk to people… and follow the leads. 

• If someone starts talking about how hard it is or complaining, walk away.  That’s an excuse.  You don’t need excuses.  You’re going for what you want.  You’re a winner.  Talk to other winners.

Buddy Up… One of the things that works well with my clients is that we talk every week and look for the gold.  They sometimes feel discouraged until we start talking.  If they’ve done their work for the week and gotten out there in their search they’ll have info.  Sometimes it feels disappointing because they didn’t get a job.  What we do together is focus on what they learned, what forward progress they made, and how to use that to find their next steps.  That get’s them feeling positive and excited again.  That is the path to continue on.

Find your team, a person or a group of people (or a coach), set some boundaries; no complaining or excuses, take full responsibility of your results.  Share your weekly experiences and help each other see what you might have missed as a win or a path to something great.  Sometimes we are so close to things we don’t see them.  And in a job search, especially if we really need it, we can miss the possibility in our disappointment of not getting the job (yet).  Work together to think of leads and new ideas.

Job Search Websites, Headhunters, etc… Talk to people who have been successful at using those tools and find out what they’ve used and who they worked with.  What I’ve noticed is that some people can make almost anything work and some make excuses.  Learn from the ones that make things work for them. 

Now that is a great time to check out the job search websites, companies for job postings, and headhunters because you’re more excited and have a clearer idea of what you want.  It makes the search easier.  Go for it.

The next step is having a resume that fits you and let’s people know that you are the right person for Your Job. 

Have you ever found your self searching, trying to figure out what you wanted to do with your life, your business, your career, your blog, or whatever it was.  I have.  Recently, I’ve been trying to figure out what I want to say and who I want to say it to through my blog.

I went for a walk along the beach today and it came to me… I have been trying to “find” my voice.  Like it was something outside of me and that if I could just find it… 

…but my voice isn’t lost and it isn’t outside of me.  We all have a voice…the question is, are we allowing our voice to speak?

I’ve been keeping mine quiet because I was trying to stick it in a box, putting parameters on it… trying to figure out which parts of me to share in my “business” blog.  There are a couple explatives I’d like to share now but we don’t know each other well enough yet…  I was holding back my spirit and my humanity but aren’t those just the things we need in business, to bring our whole selves?  Yes!

We can get so caught in the “shoulds” and “the way things are” or “the way it’s always been done” and put ourselves in that little box, confine our voice, dampen our passion and our Spirit.  What does that do to us and what does that do to our world?

Our voices need to be heard… and our humanity and Spirit; that bold fiery part of us that is alive and willing to do what is right and just and best for all, needs to be supported, exercised, strengthened… allowed.

What I decided is that the way to “find my voice” is to use my voice… yours too.  Let them out of the box.  

Use your voice.  This is our world and this is your life…  and it is what we make of it.  We can be controlled by outside influences that say we should follow, stay in line.  We can be controlled by inside influences that tell us we “should do it right” or be perfect or that we must follow and fit it.  But it is time to speak up, speak out and stand for something… to make the world and our world as great as it can be.  Use your voice… you know what you want to say, you know what is right… if you’re not sure, start talking and listen to what you have to say.

For more…

If your thinking about blogging, check out “18 Stupid Mistakes Bloggers Make in their First Year” by Christine Kane  for some great tips and treasures.

And if you want want to get inspired about speaking up and standing for what you believe… earlier today I watched the film “Flow“.  [Irena Salina's award-winning documentary investigation into what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century - The World Water Crisis.  Salina builds a case against the growing privatization of the world's dwindling fresh water supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution, human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel.]  I highly recommend it.

Trust your voice and use it.  Build the kind of life and world you want to live in!

To Our Success!  Lisa

Someone recently called me Mariposa… which means Butterfly and sounds beautiful in Spanish.

I thought about that… and it fits, yet I realized I hadn’t been using my wings. A part of me forgot that I am no longer a caterpillar and instead of my wings being these beautiful things to lift me and take me to my next destination with ease and beauty… gliding and having fun… they were weighing me down. Like a caterpillar with luggage and the wrong legs to carry it.

Sometimes, when something happens we get off track. Whether that something is personal or professional or something outside of us like the economy or getting laid off, we forget how amazing and beautiful we are, we forget the tools that we have, and we forget how capable and able we are to create the life and experience we want.

Open Up To Your Possibilities!

The first step in my “What Piece of the Puzzle Are You? Five Steps to Your Right Livelihood!” workshop is “Open Up To Possibilities”. I put that step in because people kept telling me their dreams like this… “I’d love to do this job or that, work with this client or that, have this business or that… but …I’m too old, too young, don’t have this or that skill, etc. (you fill in the rest. What’s your but?) And what I know from working with clients over the years is that those buts are not true, they are just fear and resistance…forgetting how much choice and power we have to create our destiny.

So… know you are your amazing self.  Now… what is really possible for you. Start that “I’d love to…” leave off the “but” put in an “and… today I will_____(your action step here)_____ because I know I can do it, I do have what it takes, I deserve to have what my heart desires, and the Universe will support me.”

Just like the Mariposa… how must that first flight feel? To have been a caterpillar all ones life, afraid of falling… and then have wings and need to fly. You cannot fly unless you trust your wings, that inner tug inside that says “You are so much more… fly!” That tug within you, that dream of who and how you want to be, is the truth of you. Your wings are already there… use them.

Affirmation: Today I recognize what’s good in me. I know my good and my talent. I take my next bold step knowing that I will be supported… that God and the Universe are on my side. (Vision the ease and joy of flying.)

Go, take your place in the world and be all you are meant to be…

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And… if you’re interested in the workshop I mentioned go to www.valuablerealities.com and check out my workshops! I’d love to meet you there.

I love the seasons, they remind me that there is a time for everything in life. This year, spring is showing up late… no less beautiful, no less amazing… just late.

So, what about you? Is it your spring? Is it time for you to press up out of the darkness, to stretch into the light, to spread your wings and be all you dream of being? Is it time to be yourself in all your glory, beauty and power?

Who do you want to be? Do you want to stand up and lead? Do you want to be true to you and your values, to not be part of the herd? Do you want greater success, to be the person that goes for it, that follows through? Do you want to stand for something? Do you want to make something better of your personal life? When is it time? How about now?

“When the defining moment comes, either you define the moment, or the moment defines you.” – Tin Cup

What are you going to do differently today and this week to create the life you want? If not now, then when? You can be the person you want to be! You can have the life that you want to have! Start today! Do one thing today that is in alignment with the person you want to be… and another tomorrow. Imagine where you could be in a year.

It’s never too late to do what you might have done… “It’s never too late to be who you might have been.” – George Elliot

Go for it!

To Our Success!
Lisa
The Adversity Doctor
www.adversitydoctor.com

…by the way, if you want this and feel stuck, go to my site: www.adversitydoctor.com/strategysession.html Sign up for a strategy session with me. We’ll see what we can do to get you living the life you dream of living, and being the person you want to be.