Managing the Stress of Unemployment

Let's face it ... being unemployed is one of the most stressful situations you'll ever face. Here's what you need to know: If you do nothing, and pretend you're not stressed, your stress will grow. If this goes on long enough, it may result in physical illness, anger, depression, or a chronic chip on your shoulder that will communicate itself to interviewers.

So what can you do to relieve or combat your stress?

• Make choices based on your values, not based on fear.


• Be proactive, not reactive.


• Demonstrate assertiveness rather than passivity or aggressiveness.


• Learn to pace yourself.


• Relabel events and situations to feel less threatened by them.


• Do something you enjoy daily.


• Learn to play.


• Express your creativity.


• Learn something new.


• Minimize your negative self-talk. Substitute affirmations for your usual negative thoughts.


• Accept yourself just as you are. Don't expect perfection!


• Cultivate positive connections, relationships, and friendships.


• Eat balanced meals.


• Minimize your intake of salt, sugar, fat, caffeine, and alcohol.


• Exercise regularly and safely.


• Make sure you get enough sleep.


• Take advantage of your unemployment to update all your health exams.

Staying Connected While Unemployed

One of the dangers of unemployment is that it's so easy to disconnect from your career field, industry, or the labor market in general. You're busy job searching and trying to keep your life together, and you're probably grieving over what you've lost - income, job, position, status, friends, structure .... Given all this, how do you stay connected?

Here are a few suggestions for your consideration:

• Keep current on the issues, trends, and concerns that impact your line of work. What's happening in your field? What's happening in the industry(ies) you're targeting? What's making news and causing significant industry shifts?


• Stay in touch with others who do the same kind of work. This one makes sense for two reasons. First, by staying connected to others in your field, you'll automatically be better informed about what's happening in your field. As your peers tell you what challenges they face daily, you'll be gaining vital information about what skills you need to stress in interviews for similiar jobs. Second, maintaining your career network also means you'll be alerted when a job opening occurs in the hidden job market. What could be better than that?


• Keep your skills up-to-date. One of the most common reasons people find themselves to be unemployable after a layoff is that they let their skills lapse. Remember that we're talking about three different kinds of skills here: Self-Management, Job-Related, and Transferable/Universal. The job postings you've uncovered so far will key you in to the primary skill sets in each of these categories that you most need for maximal employability. Take a class, practice your skills, and read, read, read, to make sure you stay on top of your game.


• Practice self-marketing daily. In the days ahead, you'll have the opportunity to learn vital ways to market yourself: through behavior-based interview responses, customized responses to the most common interview questions, strategic defenses for your job search liabilities, and 30-second, one-minute, and two-minute personal "commercials". The key with all these strategies will be to practice, practice, practice. I'd suggest at least 30 minutes of practice daily.


• Maintain a positive outlook/attitude. If you haven't yet viewed the Day 1 Daily Dose, I would strongly suggest you go back and take another look. One of the keys to a successful - and short - career search is to believe in yourself and the likelihood you will not only work again, but find something wonderful you will treasure. So, try journaling to help you maintain a hopeful attitude. Post quotes and affirmations all over your house and job search space. Catch yourself being fearful, and immediately do something constructive. Stay productive and focused. Take care of yourself physically, socially, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually. Pray or meditate, if you're so inclined. Believe. Trust. Have faith!

Coping with Unemployment

One of the challenges facing job seekers is that they have an almost constant need to surface new ideas ... new ideas of job titles to pursue, industries to explore, and companies to approach. But the unemployed person faces an even greater challenge: how to generate a stream of new ideas on an almost-daily basis when the stress of unemployment is more than enough to chase every good idea you might have right out of your brain.

One way to feed your need for new ideas and combat the burden of unemployment-related stress is to start an idea log.

An idea log is a written record of all your ideas. Some people log their ideas in a small notebook, or their planner, or even their PDA. Others keep a pile of post-it notes in a particular place. Be as high-tech or as low-tech as you like, but keep track of your ideas somewhere:

• Log the idea itself and the date, at a minimum. You can optionally include the time/place where the idea occurred to you, and additional details or spin-off ideas related to what you wrote down.


• Keep your log simple, and you'll find it easy to maintain.


• Make your idea log portable. If you can jot down your ideas when and where they occur to you, you are more likely to do so. If you make yourself wait until later to write an idea down, you more likely to forget it all together.


• Write down all kinds of ideas. Don't just record ideas for jobs, employers, and industries, but ideas for self-employment, how to market your business, how to earn money on the side, how to save money, new projects you'd like to launch, and whatever else comes to mind. Remember: the more regularly you respond to all of your ideas, the more likely you are to have the perfect idea exactly when you need it (like when you're in an interview for your dream job and really need to be on your toes!).


• Examples of ideas my clients or I routinely record: job possibilities, career options, classes we'd like to take, dream jobs, vacations we'd like to take, home improvement projects, ways to help someone in need, ministry ideas, ways to save money/time/energy, ways to make a difference/contribute, ways to redecorate on a budget, meal plans, gifts we want or would like to give, business ideas, ways to market ourselves/our business, to name just a few.


• Periodically pull your idea log out and review it. What patterns do you see? Is one idea, or several versions of the same idea consistently showing up? This is an important thing to notice!

Lastly, here are a few brainstorming resources for you:

• Brainstorming how to's


• Tips on brainstorming


• 10 ways to boost your creativity