Staying positive during your job search is not simply a nice thing to do for yourself—it’s necessary to your success. Negative thinking oozes its way into your speech and actions, and it trips you up in all kinds of ways. Positive thinking helps you feel better about yourself AND get hired faster.
We are following the points from great article by Mark Tyrrell on How to Stop Negative Thinking in 7 Simple Steps and applying them to your job search to help you stay positive.
See How to Stop Negative Thinking and Stay Positive in Your Job Search – Part 1
See How to Stop Negative Thinking and Stay Positive in Your Job Search – Part 2
Mark says that the 3rd step to staying positive is ‘Don’t minimize the positive.’ Negative thinkers tend to focus on the negative, which makes it all you can see. This can cause you to miss opportunities. Make an effort to focus on the positive.
How to Focus on the Positive
Remind yourself of what you did well in the past, and that you can do that again. Look back at your resume and relive those moments where you were extremely proud of what you did and where you were exceptional at what you did and others recognized it, and where others would have enjoyed having you on their team because of what you can do.
Put up notes where you can easily see them to remind yourself about these things. I often coach people before a big interview to put up sticky notes or Post-It notes or write on their bathroom mirror things like:
- “You’re an exceptional executive professional”
- “You’re a powerful professional”
- “You’re an accomplished accountant”
- “You’re a proven Director of Operations”
- “You’ve been able to create opportunities for companies”
Remind yourself of how powerful, how amazing, and how valuable you are. Attitude is everything. If you don’t believe it, no one else will.
When you get an interview, don’t look at it as ‘lucky.’ Remind yourself of everything you’ve done and why they would be lucky to have you.
As always, if something isn’t working in your job search, don’t look at it as some issue with you that can’t be corrected. If something isn’t working, do something different.
If you’re getting interviews but not offers, get coaching. It’s often a quick fix, because we can laser-focus on you.
Find out more about coaching here: Career Coaching