A Reason to Keep Going

I do some occasional volunteer speaking for laid off workers at local workforce centers and networking groups.

I share job-seeking advice from my perspective as a former executive recruiter, hiring manager...

And layoff survivor.

In my presentation, I recommend that an individual should immediately do FOUR things after being laid off:

1.  File for unemployment
2.  Build a detailed budget to see where to cut costs
3.  Create a weekly job search plan
4.  SIGN UP FOR A DIFFICULT RACE

Indeed, I receive some quizzical looks on that last recommendation.

But then I relate my own painful layoff story.

And how the one thing that got me out of bed each morning to face more rejection letters and more lousy interviews, was a race I was training for.

A race I had signed up for just days before being laid off.

A 14.5 mile race up one of Colorado's "14ers" called The Mount Evans Ascent.

I recall how training for this challenging endeavor provided me four things when the job search was at it's darkest:

A Goal
The race was in late June.  I knew I had 12 weeks to plan and execute the proper training to accomplish the goal--at 14,000 feet.  The task was big, challenging, but indeed workable if the goal was calendared out.

A Place to be Each Day.
Each day began with training.  Each week the mileage grew.  Knowing that race day was rapidly approaching,  the fear of not finishing forced me to approach the daily training like going to a part-time job each morning.

Performance Feedback
Each week, I logged my mileage, speed, and body weight on a piece of paper I taped on the fridge.  Nothing fancy to be sure but effective noetheless in providing positive feedback when I met my goal.

And giving me the swat on the butt on the days I slept in.

Victory
It was white-out conditions atop Mt. Evans on race day June 2009.  But for my dad being at the top with with his cell phone camera, I would have had no photographic evidence I had finished.

The photographers went home early due to the storm.

But that day was a shining light.

A light in the dark job-search tunnel I had been traveling.  A light because the things it provided (a goal, a place to be each day, performance feedback, and victory) are all the things that provide us an identity when we HAVE a job.

And are the things taken from us when we LOSE our job.

So how about this:

Whatever tunnel you are traveling through, there are a lot of variables you can NOT control or make better.

Maybe you can't make the job market better.

Or your boss better.

Or the economy better.

Or the price of gas better.

But perhaps...

Signing up for that race.

And training for that race--that race that will really stretch you-- maybe even scare you...

Will make YOU better.

And that seems like all the reason in the world to keep going.

AMJ