Staying Motivated While Looking For Your Next Position
How to Stay Motivated During a Job Search
At some point in your professional career, you may get into a rut at work that leaves you feeling like you want more from your position. You may be in a bad professional situation that forces you to look elsewhere for employment. You may be let go and need another position quickly. You may have personal situations that affect your work life and require that you change your profession for more flexibility, pay, or location. The process of finding a new job may take a while and it’s important to understand how to stay motivated during a job search.
All of these situations can leave a person in a wide range of negative emotions - sad, angry, distraught, desperate, unmotivated - and they are all understandable! The most important thing is to take care of yourself, physically and emotionally so you have your best chance of moving forward. Staying motivated can be daunting with so many pressures and uncertainties. In these situations, having a professional development coach can be invaluable, but here are a few things you can do to stay motivated on your own:
Keep your routine. Continue waking up at the same time everyday, go the gym, see your friends and family, spend time on your favorite hobby. Don’t change your routine, especially if you no longer have employment. It’s a rabbit hole that can quickly turn you into a moping, self-pity party, also known as a very unattractive candidate for your next position.
Stay healthy. Stress and insecurity can send even the most health conscious among us to the dessert aisle for 3 pints of double chocolate fudge ice cream and extra whip cream. It’s ok in moderation, but don’t let yourself fall into the trap letting a bad day ruin your health.
Be diligent. Easier said than done when our in the trenches of any of the situations described above, but this is among the most important thing you can do. Don’t let weeks go by before updating your resume and certainly don’t use that as an excuse to not look for open positions. Work hard and pursue your next opportunity with vigor so you won’t be in this situation for long!
Find accountability. Approach someone you trust and ask them to follow up with your well being and your job search progress every few days or once a week. You won’t want to have to tell them you’ve done nothing (and ate an entire gallon of ice cream with extra hot fudge) in the last 3 days - it really does work to keep yourself moving.
If you need more tips on how to stay motivated during a job search, career coaching can help get your momentum going in the right direction. Find out more about how we can help here.
The Wilbanks Consulting Group can show you how to stay motivated during a job search.