at any given moment

I knew I was in an unhealthy work culture for me. I walked into a store and found a bracelet with a simple message - 'at any given moment, we have the power to say "this is not how the story is going to end"' - that helped carry me through the next few months. Eventually I used that message to push me into exploring new opportunities for employment.

Job searching is exhausting, hard, hopeless and lonely so to set myself up for better mental success and focus, I created the following, and timeboxed it to 90 days:

Objective: "I believe by seeking new employment I will find greater happiness in my job."
Key Results:
- Explore 1 to 2 new ways of job searching
- Review 3 to 5 potential jobs a week

I left out a number related to applying for jobs because my experience with number of applications never converted to a mental sense of wellbeing in my job pursuit. I wanted to experiment with my objective … find greater happiness … and my sense was that wasn’t going to be achieved by number of applications.

It took the courage to say “Yes” to a few things I had never tried – see Key Result #1 – and I eventually connected with a local recruiter.

If you’re stuck, unhappy or unemployed, please take a moment to set yourself up for mental success when starting down the (painful) path of finding something new.