Job Searching Is Like Going To The Gym

Time to read: 1 minute 15 seconds

Welcome to week 2 of Job Searching for Corporate Rebels!

An effective job search builds momentum. You start with a handful of connections and grow it into a vibrant matrix. This means three things:

1. You have to start somewhere which means you can start anywhere.
2. The start may be slow. That's ok. It takes a while to build momentum.
3. You want your job search to take on a life of its own.

Looking for a job is like going to the gym. When you start, working out doesn't feel great. You can't lift much weight, and your body feels unfamiliar and uncomfortable. You force yourself to go. After a few weeks, a bicep appears, and you sleep better. As you start to see results, you become intrinsically motivated to work out.

Job searching works the same way. Doing reps gets results. Job search reps are making calls, talking to people, submitting resumes, and just like the gym, refining your approach will focus your results as you progress (tailoring your resume, honing your talking points).

Job searching isn't magic (until you get the offer, then it definitely feels like magic). It's a matter of discipline and willingness. Doing the work. Talking to people. Sending applications. Do the reps. Over time, you build momentum.

Today's Hot Tip: Do the reps. Job searching isn't complex. Just do the reps.

In the next couple of weeks, I'll share more about how to build momentum. Stay tuned.

If you have a friend or colleague who could benefit from 14 years of experience in career development and job seeking, please hit forward and share this newsletter with them. They can subscribe here to receive the whole series.

Reach out anytime!

What We're Getting Wrong. (And how to get it right.)

Time to read: Less than 1 minute

Vermont in the fall

If you pay attention to the news, even if you don't, you can't escape the level of vitriol and meanness that seems to pervade our national and international conversations. I'd share examples but the list is long, depressing, and you already know it.

Baked into the vitriol and meanness is a sense of "us" and "them," an insistence on winning for my side while their side must lose. We are all too familiar with win-lose, and it's exhausting and anxiety producing.

Here's the thing: There is no such thing as win-lose. There's no such thing as "us" and "them."

There's only us.

Our only options are win-win or lose-lose.

Working toward win-win requires reflection and willingness to embrace complexity, paradox, uncertainty, and things you don't understand. The desire to cling to simple solutions, universal "truth," and certainty leads to choices and attitudes that cause everyone to lose.

Years ago, when I taught college, I used a game with my Group Communication class. The goal was to get the most points. Teams would sabotage each other and scrape out a point only to lose it later until the play ended with no points for either team (lose-lose). The trick to the game was collaboration. If the teams worked together, both teams won unlimited points (win-win).

Before you despair that human nature is fundamentally flawed, here's the good news. You make a difference. You can move through your day looking for and creating win-win in big and small ways, and when you do that, you feed the collective attitude. Those choices matter. Here are a few ideas then please, run with your exploration of win-win:

• Tip generously.
• Let drivers merge in traffic (and wave at the drivers who let you in).
• At the office find ways to create or offer opportunities for others to shine.
• Acknowledge good work and kindness publicly and frequently.

It's never about the details of who got what or who deserves more. It's always about the energy, the 10,000 foot view, and the choices you make to nourish win-win rather than lose-lose.

That's how powerful you are.

How to Get Out of Exhaustion and Overwhelm

Time to read: Less than one minute and fifteen seconds

Hello Rebels,

It's 6:00 am. Your feet are barely on the floor, and you're already behind. You stayed up after your children's bedtime to empty your stuffed inbox and get ahead on that presentation you couldn't finish during your back-to-back day. Then there is summer scheduling, end of school activities, and picking up the slack while your colleagues take spring vacation. Remember exercise? Ha!

You're exhausted before you've started, and although some days are more packed than others, they all mush together in one long string of busy-ness.

Feel familiar?

You think that if you find the right productivity strategy, you'll be able to fix this. You get creative with your company's insistence that you "do more with less." You only check email once or twice a day. You focus on the three most important things you need to get done. These strategies work to some extent, and nothing seems to change.

I love productivity tips as much as the next busy person. And, organizing your desk differently or making prioritized lists is only going to get you so far.

What will actually get you out of exhaustion and overwhelm, is a change in you.

To help you experiment with this idea, I turned to a process I use in my own life. I have this amazing set of cards full of empowering choices and beliefs. I pull one every day to anchor how I will be with whatever is happening that day.

Today, I pulled three cards for you. (See the photo above.) Your three cards are:

Willingness: This is one of my favorites. You have to be willing to do things differently today. To slow down. To stop worrying. To get into action. Even when things suck, we're often not actually willing to change it.

I am creative: Where can you lean into your wild creativity to bring more joy, new solutions, or less stress to your work?

I choose trust: I pull a card everyday, and I seriously trust 4 out of 5 times. Seems like this one might be kind of important. Where do you not trust yourself? Or others? Where can you lean into more trust to bring ease to your work and relationships?

Pick one of these cards and use it to navigate your day. Then hit reply to this email and tell me what happens.

I always love to hear from you.

With rebel love,

Christina

P.S. Please share these cards with a friend or colleague who needs a little more trust, creativity or willingness. They can join our merry band of rebels here.