Change your Search, Change your Life
Last week, I shared my experience searching for a job, and how much dissonance I had about my lack of success. This situation then spiraled into mental and physical suffering and a very disorganized way of looking for work. Yes, I was sleepwalking through my job search, and now I was mentally paying the price. As a professional coach, I knew I could massively improve my lackadaisical approach. As a divine human, I knew my wild and precious life depended on it.
What I am learning is that this era is not just about my job search; it’s about how I want to live my wild and precious life.
I tried different tools, approaches, books, and a job search council. I learned from these things. And, here are a few observations:
Humans want to speculate and commiserate (in meetings, councils). This is ok for some folks, and it no longer serves me.
There are a lot “tips and tricks” in the job search universe right now. Some things never change. If you are being offered a trick, it probably is one…on you.
There is a great need for a more strategic and growth focused approach to looking for work. Just because your income stopped or has not started, doesn’t mean your growth has to stop.
Rather than keep a list of what not to do, I used my observations and learning to develop standard work to use every day that I job search. The standard work of an Intentional Job Search. It’s designed to make daily, small steps to focus and strengthen my search and my intentional life. I also pulled together my favorite thinking an reflecting tools that help me do this work.
Here is an overview of the standard work of The Intentional Job Search:
The Business of You: Your personal vision, top personal values, and personal brand. As you can see, The Business of You is very…personal.
Introspect: Working intentionally needs mental space. To reflect, and to just…be. Free of the distractions of the digital world’s constant pull.
New Land: Is about continuously learning, and then being willing to let what you learn actually change you. Not just certifications or classes. It’s about creating new thinking from experiences, neuroplasticity, to change old thinking patterns and who we are becoming.
Grind: This section is all about networking, one of the most underserved parts of modern job search coaching and training. It’s overlooked and misunderstood by both job seekers and those in their network.
Outside Search: This is the time to integrate the hard work of all the other parts of your search, and how you build and sustain resilience. Outside Search is the open space your mind and body craves, where there is freedom from wanting and the negative emotions associated with your current situation.It’s slightly different than the BINGO you may have played at the riverboat casino with Meemaw or Uncle Glenn.
Each day of your search, the goal is to do one thing from each column.
Forward, backward, that’s up to you.
Complete something from each part of the standard work each day you job search.
It’s just a tool. Watch this YouTube video to get started.
The mindset and behaviors that support the tool are really where change happens. That’s why I created The Intentional Job Search course to support using the tool. The course takes a deep dive into all five parts of the standard work of an intentional job search. You will learn some of my favorite thinking and reflection tools and get some sample networking language. The course is truly more than a class, it’s a method to live an intentional, focused life.
No B.S.
No tricks.
Only your growth.