KEEPING THE HOPE (EVEN IF YOU HAVE NO JOB)…
Why do we welcome the New Year with a Bang and not a whimper? Why Do we make merry instead of grieve? Or why do we try to rejoice even when we may not have too many reasons to do so? The answer is simple: HOPE.
HOPE
Those who find themselves without a job as the New Year comes are probably in a more challenged position than those who simply move on with their careers. This is because they must look for a job in the incoming year. They must join the ranks of jobseekers like themselves, whether retrenched, fired, resigned, or just graduated from school, returning entrants to the workforce or retirees seeking new careers. Those who have to look for jobs in the New Year must compete in a highly competitive marketplace and hold their own against countless others claiming their stake in the world of work just like themselves.
OPTIMISM
A key component of Hope is Optimism, the ability to view things in a positive light and to see good in all things. Optimism makes it possible to bounce back after being derailed by setbacks and obstacles. To the optimists, problems are not considered hindrances but opportunities for learning and growing. In that sense, obstacles are welcomed rather than avoided. In his book “Learned optimism: How to Change your Mind and Your Life,” Martin Seligman notes three components which differentiate optimists from pessimists in the way they understand adversity and failure:
PERMANENCE
Optimists see adversity as impermanent, temporary, fleeting. Pessimists, however, see failure as a forever thing. Pessimists will say: “I will never find a job”, while optimists will say, “I didn’t get this job. I have four more leads to pursue.”
PERVASIVENESS
This component describes the extent to which people allow failure to affect them. “All companies are looking for younger people” is a pessimistic sweeping view of the entire employment scenario. On the other hand, optimists will say: “This particular company wants younger people but there are others who want more mature and experienced workers like me.” This statement rightly limits the specific failure to its proper scope and reach.
PERSONALIZATION
Pessimists consider failure to be negative and internal. They believe that there is something wrong with them as persons, making them unacceptable to employers. “I am not marketable,” pessimists will say. Optimists, on the other hand, view failure as positive and welcome. “I have competencies other companies need which this particular company which has rejected me does not.”
OPTIMISM IN THE JOB SEARCH
Optimistic jobseekers stand a better chance of viewing the job-hunting process as life-giving and worthwhile. They can take rejections at face value, never allowing failure to diminish their innate goodness, capabilities and worth as persons and workers. They allow themselves to feel upset and to mourn their loss, then use their setback to be the launch pad from which they leap forward and take control of their future. They keep things in perspective and confine the effects of adversity to their appropriate space and time.
Jobseekers who nurture their optimism and use it to propel them through difficult and trying challenges of looking for a new job in the new year will survive and thrive. They will grow with every experience and be grateful for what they learn from each one. And because they have the ability to convert the most dismal to the brightest of experiences, they will also be those workers that companies would love to have among their ranks. It may be a matter of time before they are “discovered”, but it will come. The New Year is probably the best time to start anew. A new optimism, a new hope and a new year go well together. And so does the tug at the heartstring that tells us that even in times when all is well, it is best for us to fail and rise again and again, and again because it is there where real success has its definition and meaning.
