Do Something

“During that early self-employment period, when I struggled every day, completely clueless about what to do and terrified of the results (or lack thereof), Mr. Packwood’s advice started beckoning me from the recesses of my mind.  I heard it like a mantra: Don’t just sit there.  DO something.  The answers will follow. In the course of applying Mr. Packwood’s advice, I learned a powerful lesson about motivation. … Action isn’t just the effect of motivation; it’s also the cause of it.” 

– Mark Manson, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F#ck.

This quote by Mark Manson is great and it resonates with some of the philosophy I have lived my life by.  In this case, the application of these words to the job search effort is spot on. 

There are likely three scenarios that are playing out in your life when you are reading this.

1. You are disappointed with your current job situation and contemplating making a change.  In this case, you are frustrated and perhaps nervous about where things are at.  You have to decide if you are uncomfortable enough to take action exploring going to work somewhere else.

2. You have chosen to leave your previous job situation and are contemplating the future.  You were frustrated, tired or stressed enough to want to leave what you were doing.  Or perhaps the job you were doing was seasonal or had a specific time period to it.  In any event, you are in a position of your choosing and thinking about what is next. 

3. You were let go of your prior role by your previous employer and are working on your ‘next thing.’  In this case, your situation has been chosen for you.  Now you are in a situation not of your choosing and it may be somewhat time critical depending on the separation details and your personal financial situation.

Each of these situations have several different emotional components and a variety of timetables to them.  But all of them could leave you frozen in place.  Depression could be setting in and you are feeling lethargic about doing anything differently.  Anxiety and stress could be keeping you up all night and not allowing your body to get the rest it needs to function properly.  Procrastination may set in and work to convince you that you will have plenty of time and it will be easy to find another role so take some time off.  There could be several other scenarios, but many of them will keep you from action.

DO Something!  This is the answer that moves things forward. 

Many quotes that speak to this same mindset.

“Inaction breeds doubt and fear.  Action breads confidence and courage.  If you want to conquer feer, do not sit home and think about it.  Go out and get busy.” – Dale Carnegie

“I never worry about action, but only inaction.” – Winston Churchill

“There are risks and costs to action.  But they are far less than the long-range risks of comfortable inaction.” – John F. Kennedy

What is so key about activity?  Why not sit and ponder the situation?  What is wrong with taking some time to let your mind think through things, consider options, look for the best thing to do or use some time to relax? 

The reality is that there isn’t going to be one single ‘best thing’ to do, so pick one and then move on to the next one.  The reality is that the job search won’t be a fulltime commitment, so you will have some in between time for some ‘me time.’  Just like when you were a kid, get the chores done and then you can go play with your friends.

Action fuels energy for more action.  Isaac Newton stated it best, “An object at rest will stay at rest until a force acts on it.”  This is true for people looking for a job and for people trying to stay physically fit.  Working out can be tiring, but typically the hardest thing to do is to get to the athletic club, jump on your treadmill, and/or commit the time to start walking.  Once you start in motion and you get there, then you will start to feel better. When you are done, you will discover that you have more energy for the rest of the day.  Your mind needs to be the force that Newton was talking about, and it needs to create the motion.

The reality of the job search effort is that there is not a proven step-by-step process that will land you your next role.  Your next opportunity could come from a discussion with a neighbor, it could come from an on-line application, it could come from a networking meeting, it could come from a cold call e-mail you send to a target company, and so on.  The trick isn’t to pick the best thing, but it is to do multiple things.  Get multiple lines in the water and keep tending to them. 

This does have some relevance to the concept we touched on about keeping a schedule.  Defining your own working hours of the day will section off the time to do something…then you get to decide what gets done during that time.  You are your own employer during the job search, so make sure you put in the time and get to actionable work.