Sea Glass and the Job Search

One of my favorite things to do year round is to go searching for sea glass.  To me, there’s nothing like the joy in finding the perfect blue or aquamarine piece of glass.  I’ve been doing it since I was a little girl and I still find it relaxing today.  Sometimes I walk away with a pocketful of glass and other times I come home with just the sand in my shoes. 

As I was walking on the beach today I was thinking about other things and wasn’t concentrating on the reason I was there.  I was thinking about work and my kids and if I left enough food out for the cat.  My mind was so busy jumping from topic to topic that I walked by two pieces of glass.  How did I know that? Because some part of my brain was still processing the reason for the walk even though I was thinking about something else.  Somewhere in my brain I was getting a message that I just missed some glass.  Sure enough, when I stopped and turned around, there they were.

Organizing yourself for the job search process can be like walking past those two pieces of glass.  While your mind is telling you what you should do, your thoughts tend to become scattered, disorganized and leave you overwhelmed and frustrated.  The key is to take it one step at a time.  After getting over the initial shock and then visiting with the unemployment office to figure out your options, it’s time to develop a strategy.   There are three steps to that process; Planning, Networking and Preparing and you should spend some concentrated time on each before jumping to the next. I’ll write about those areas next time.  In the meantime, remember that while finding a new job is a necessity, too much mind clutter can lead to unproductive activities. We’ll take it one step at a time and like the sea glass, focus on doing it right.