Hello Friends!

Good to be with you as we begin a brand new year together.

This month's topic: How spending every waking hour job hunting and obsessing about your unemployment situation could actually be counter-productive.

For the past year I've been writing a book for job seekers who are in desperate need of a breakthrough. As soon as the book is available I'll email you a special addition newsletter to announce its release.

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Happy Hunting...and keep smiling!

Mike Petras

Every adversity, every unpleasant circumstance, every failure, and every physical pain carries with it the seed of an equivalent benefit. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

What Goes Around Comes Around

No...

Look at your job search as a marathon, not a sprint. For best results, act more like a tortoise instead of a jack rabbit.

This perspective helps you avoid burnout, depression, and procrastination. Once these negative emotions creep into your job search you will take less action and become more complacent.

Sometimes these negative emotions become so painful that some bummed out job seekers will:

• Drink more...Happy Hour becomes Happy Night...every night
• Stay up too late at night, and then try to get through the next day on 4 hours sleep
• Watch too much TV
• Go overboard on personal fitness
• Tidy up the garage or work on the car...any excuse to avoid job hunting

You may already be at this stage and harbor a lot of guilt about it. But, just as easily as you drifted off course, you can get back on track by simply getting outside of yourself a few times a week.

When you shift your focus away from yourself, your burdens become lighter and your self worth gets a boost. Pretty soon your motivation is restored and you wonder how you ever got sidetracked.

Here is an exercise to help you get outside of yourself when you feel discouraged because your job search is going nowhere fast.

Write down all of your current roles in life. These might include: father, mother, husband, wife, son, daughter, brother, sister, grandparent, provider, homemaker, volunteer, friend, neighbor, missionary, teacher, writer, Scout leader, soldier, etc.

As you begin your day, ponder these important life roles and ask yourself: What can I do this week to give back to someone I deeply care about?

Here are 5 ideas:

1. Call someone out of the blue just to see how things are going, and expecting nothing in return.
2. Attend a local job networking meeting to provide support to other struggling job seekers.
3. Meet someone for breakfast or coffee.
4. Ask your spouse/significant-other out on a date. Make it a weekly habit.
5. Volunteer for a service project at your church or in your community.

Jim didn't like his job as a Financial Adviser for a major insurance company. His job required 55-60 hour work weeks...including evenings and Saturdays. Jim's work-life balance was out of whack and taking a toll on his family.

Despite his demanding schedule, Jim looked for another job with minimal success. He felt trapped, discouraged, and lost.

One Saturday his church was doing a short service project at the chapel in the morning and asked Jim if he could help. Just what Jim needed...more time away from his wife and kids. For some reason, he couldn't say no. After all, it was only a couple of hours. Besides, he liked the people he was going to be hanging out with.

So, off Jim went to the service project. At the end of this short event, Jim met briefly with his friend, Rick, who just happened to have a great job as Purchasing Manager with a major local manufacturer.

They talked about non-work related stuff, when all of sudden Rick asked Jim how his job was going. Jim told him his story and said he was actively looking to make a change. To Jim's amazement, Rick then proceeded to tell him that his company was looking for a Sales Rep. He invited Jim to have lunch with him on Monday and take a tour of the plant.

To make a long story short, Jim met Rick for lunch, took the plant tour, and when it was over, Rick introduced him to his General Manager. An interview was scheduled with the GM and a week later Jim was offered the job. He accepted and went on to enjoy a long and satisfying career with this company. Jim had absolutely no clue any of this would happen by simply attending a church service project.

What does all this have to do with your job search?

Often times when we set aside our troubles for a brief time and focus on others, opportunities find us. Most of our blessings in life come by way of other people. Sometimes we are the givers and sometimes we are the receivers in this process. Either way...everyone benefits. Eventually, what goes around, comes around.

Until next month...fair winds.

Mike Petras

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