I have a 45 years old client who was retrenched. After 6 months of actively looking for jobs and sending out numerous resume to prospective employers, he became disheartened because his effort seems futile.
He decided to change his strategies, he finds courage to seek assistance and job guidance. When I met him, he told me that he is feeling lost, his confidence is shaken and his self – esteem plummets to the extent that he is fearful that he might go into depression. Understandably so for someone who has lost a job, worrying over financial obligations and trying so hard to secure another job without seeing results.
I admire his courage to come forward to seek guidance and I can tell that he has strong perseverance and is dedicated to do whatever it takes to land a job.
After working together with him on enhancing his resume and interviewing skills, we progressed to focus on the intangibles which is building up his emotional stamina.
Emotional stamina is the ability to develop a sustained capacity to thrive in crisis, it is the strength and ability to ride the storm of uncertainty and still remain dedicated and motivated. These are the factors that makes a person extraordinary.
Here are the 7Ps that strengthen your emotional stamina and keeps you moving forward when you feel at a loss.
1) Positive attitude
A positive attitude means believing in yourself and your abilities. Positivity leads to increase energy. It helps to achieve goals and attain success. If you look on the bright side, you will be able to focus on opportunities that are available to you. Life will test you time and again, the key is to develop an optimistic outlook, choose not to give up and expect the best to happen.
2) Perseverance
No matter how many times you get rejected, or how frustrated you become, perseverance is the key to goal attainment. Resilience and perseverance can be rewarded.
Michael Jordan, the best basketball player of all time, have lost 300 games and missed 9,000 shots but he never let his failure hold him back. He refused to give up. His perseverance paved his way to extraordinary success. In Jordan’s own words:” I have failed over and over again in my life and career. And that is why I succeed ” In short, he can accept failure but cannot accept not trying.
3 ) Patience
Some problems cannot be solved in an instant. For example, if a person is overweight, going to the gym daily for a week or two will not transform his/her body like a supermodel. Overcome your obstacles into small achievable steps and celebrate the little victories along the way. These victories will keep you focused and motivated in coping with the larger obstacles objectively. The key to success is to adopt consistency and patience.
4) Paradigm shift
Sometimes we feel emotionally drained because of our fixed mentality and thinking patterns that control our actions for many years. If something is not working for you, it could be that you are struck in your comfort zone or trapped in your old habits. Take time to re-condition your thinking, look at challenges from a different perspective. For example, losing a job can be daunting, however, you can use your time to focus on your interest, strengths, talents to develop your potential fully and achieve success by creating massive breakthroughs, something that you may not be able to do if you are stuck in a job that does not play on your strengths and abilities. If you have a problem, do not look at it as a problem. It could be an opportunity.
5) Positioning
To succeed in job search, job hunters need to position themselves through personal branding. It is all about how you differentiate yourself from other job applicants. Your education, past working experience, accomplishments and having the ability to do the job are not enough to enhance competitive advantage over other job hunters. They are all important factors to acquire but you need unique positioning. For example, you can start to think of the key contributions and the added value that you can provide and serve your prospective employers that give them compelling reason to hire you.
6) Proactive
Being proactive means taking initiative and being responsible for what you do. The opposite of proactive is reactive. Reactive people react to what goes on around them. Proactive people do whatever it takes to reach their desired goals. My client is a fine example of a proactive person. Instead of blaming his previous employer or the economy downturn, he proactively find ways to help himself and find other help resources because he understands that there are many available opportunities which can be explored and seized.
7) Problem – solver
In life or at work, it is inevitable to face with challenges. Worrying and whining will not solve your problems. It keeps you busy but it gets you no where. Channel your energy towards finding constructive solutions. Strive to achieve your goals despite disappointments. Be creative and explore new ideas in facing your obstacles and in all areas of your life. Do not magnify your problems, magnify your solutions.
Recently, after less than 2 months after our first meeting, my client contacted me and with great enthusiasm he shared with me his joy of getting 2 job offers. He happily added that he has adopted the 7Ps approach in strengthening his emotion stamina, it keeps him motivated, committed and eventually achieved his goal. He will practice the 7Ps strategies not only in job search process but in all challenging situations. His victories are worth celebrating!
Life’s best lessons can be learned in moments of darkness, everyone fails at one point or another, what is important is do something constructive. You will never be 100% sure things will work, but you can always be 100% sure not doing anything certainly will not work.
It takes a lot of courage to admit that something needs to change, even greater courage to accept personal responsibility to MAKE that change. The key is to move forward taking the first step and progress consistently. Achieving anything worthwhile in life takes effort. It may be a daunting task, but it will be worth it in the end.
Stay MOTIVATED! Keep going! Embrace change! You are getting closer to where you want to be.
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