From CBS news on June 13, 2011: “About 6.2 million Americans, 45.1 percent of all unemployed workers in this country, have been jobless for more than six months – at its highest since the Great Depression.”
These numbers should knock our socks off and get us thinking in new ways, because the path we are on is headed in the wrong direction.
It’s time to use those four practices of UNFEAR. First let’s say YOU are one of the “chronically unemployed” who has not found work for more than six months. How can you use the four practices to shift or adapt better to your present circumstances?
1.) Accept the real and focus on the future
Reality can be a b*&%h. We have to accept what’s real in order to address it the best possible way. Reality is that these unemployment/ underemployment statistics are real and drastic. The reality is that there are not enough available jobs, and that many job postings that used to get a few applicants now get hundreds. The field is more competitive, and more stress inducing than it has been in the past. Accepting this reality is the start of something great – now we can move forward.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, time to come up with a plan. What is possible in your future? Do you have skills you need to hone and develop? What programs are available to you locally and online to help in your training, your job search, or your soul search? Do you have what it takes to start your own business and make a go of it? Take this entrepreneurship quiz: http://www.successmagazine.com/Entrepreneurship-Quiz/PARAMS/article/581/channel/20.
2.) View challenges as opportunities
How you view these circumstances shifts how successful you will be. If you have “true grit”, you’ll view this as a challenge to overcome, as a learning opportunity, or as something you’ll tell a story about later. That attitude has helped people to overcome horrible atrocities like being prisoners of war – and it can help you.
3.) Build relationship and community
Now more than ever we need each other. Who do you have in your support network? Do you trust those around you to give you positive messages? To connect you with opportunities? Do you have people in your life who are negative, disturbing and unsupportive? You know who you need to spend more time with, right?! Research shows that people who can say at least one person in the world believes in them have greater resilience.
4.) Practice physical and mental discipline
Above all, health first. And that doesn’t just mean that you go to the gym. Times of stress wreak havoc on our mental and physical well being if we don’t toughen up and get serious about physical and mental discipline. Eat right. Drink your water. And make sure that the messages you’re telling yourself are the right messages. In UNFEAR the book I have a section on media – if the news is freaking you out, you may need to monitor your news intake. Remember, EVERYTHING YOU READ, SEE, TOUCH, HEAR, FEEL is having an impact on you. Surround yourself with positivity to reduce your stress, build your confidence, and to give you relief.
If you know someone who could use this information, please forward!
