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Emotional Unemployment? (sm)
How to Win the Mental Game of Career Transition
Speaker:
Diane Wilson has been a career and executive coach for over 17 years. Her passion
is the human side of work and helping people become more satisfied and fulfilled
at work. She is author of Back In Control: How to Stay Sane, Productive and
Inspired in Your Career Transition (Sentient Publications, 2004) (http://www.back-in-control.com).
Her columns have also appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Reader's Digest, Conscious
Choice, and in trade publications. Known for her compassionate yet practical
perspective, she writes team building, leadership development, managing stress
and goal setting.
Introduction
Everyone has heard of the mental game of golf and tennis but how are you at
the mental game of career transition? We struggle over the perfect resume and
cover letters, but what about your mental game for confronting your days during
times of career change? Whether you have quit, been laid off, fired or just
hope any of these will happen to get away from your current job, the way you
think and feel will dramatically affect your progress.
It is a mental game that requires balance, dealing with reality and handling
the perception of winning and losing. Sometimes we forget the Cognitive, Spiritual
and Emotional aspects, so we need to find ways to better manage the emotional
part in order to maintain our effectiveness and focus on results. When we don't
we run the risk of becoming unproductive, lost, unfocused, disconnected. This
is what is called "Emotional Unemployment" and can happen even if
you have a job.
So, how can we better manage and cope with these challenges?
- Self-assessment - an awareness of how we are doing.
- Knowledge - performance strategies for mental conditioning.
- WIIFM Application (What's In It For Me) - Create and practice our own mental
conditioning program.
- Factors to consider in self-assessment:
- Physical (exercise, sleep and nutrition habits)
- Emotional factors
- Environmental factors
- Intuition (understanding our connection to our own instincts)
- Behavioral style
- Our Inner Circle of contacts
Trouble Signs:
- Irregular schedule (sleep, meals, etc.)
- Isolating self
- Grumpiness and irritableness
- High level of impatience
- Jobless paranoia" (habit of coming up with creative reasons why I won't
ever get hired or I can't ever….)
- Career amnesia" (forgetting who I was or what I was in the past)
- Lack of productivity
- Low confidence levels
So, what can I do to better manage my mental game? Consider how professional
athletes manage their mental game so as to enhance their performance. They….
SEE IT - VISION:
Visualize the end result. What does it look like and/or what is your vision
of the desired end result? Close your eyes and visualize the positive. Describe
how it looks.
HEAR IT - SELF TALK:
"Background noise", or thoughts are usually taken for granted, but
we need to focus on our "mental soundtrack". Are we thinking "If
only……" or "What if…..", when we should be hearing
"I am" and "I will"? List positive thoughts like "They
need me…", "This will be better….", etc.
FEEL IT - CONNECT/FIND FLOW:
Consider how you feel when everything flows and you are connected to your spirit
and core energy. When this occurs, what does it feel like and what are the words
to describe these feelings. Such focus can lead to better presence, power and
confidence.
Finally, we need to regularly practice the above steps. By writing down our
desired states, we then need to track and score each time we practice. Use the
format below to list your own descriptors for SEE IT, HEAR IT, FEEL IT, then
each day track the number of repetitions with tick marks.
SUMMARY
- Be aware of mental attitude….it's crucial.
- High performers will hone what and how they:
Practice is powerful for a winning attitude!
Dianne Wilson
Grimard Wilson Consulting, Inc.
333 West Wacker Drive, Suite 500, Chicago, IL 60606
312-201-1142
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