Worries, Anxieties, Depression & Lessons learned

Just like the death of a loved one, the breakup of a marriage, and the serious illness of a family member, the loss of a job or business is extremely stressful to the individual and family.  Each person confronts these stressors in different ways but the sooner one can replace these depressing thoughts with productive activity the better.  For some people they ruminate over these thoughts incessantly, blaming themselves.  Instead of letting the worry help them create a problem resolution, they let the worries get them into a greater funk. 

Some efforts to temporarily distract the worry or thought may not alleviate the depression in the long run- such as eating our favorite food or dessert when we know we should be dieting.  Watching too much TV to take our minds off the worry may cause greater depression when many programs are not uplifting or helping us move on.  Temporary distractions typically have temporary results.

For those that need counseling or perscription drugs to help cope with these depressions, they should follow those steps to have more self awareness of the stressors, healthy skepticism and cognitive reframing of the situation.

Other suggestions include: aerobic exercise, providing volunteer services, praying, more church service, and asking for a special blessing.  Also one can go back to school or get some additional training.  Joining clubs and associations are also helpful to build relationships.  The act of branding yourself, going to a career workshop and resume class is helpful.  Getting more connected with your friends, potential hiring managers and company networking connections helps you to get over your depression.  Setting and achieving weekly goals and celebrating success is helpful.  Reading uplifting books and sharing success stories with others is helpful.  In today's economic climate, you have to keep reinventing yourself and looking for positive examples where you're getting closer to your goal.

If you have an interview and come in 2nd or 3rd, don't blame yourself or make excuses, just tell yourself you learned something valuable to help you in the next interview.  Have a positive image of success before each interview.  Reward yourself by recognizing how much you've grown in your job search skills. Remember all the good things you have going for you:  You are a child of God, you have the potential for greatness.  You with God's help and a little faith and effort can move mountains even if those are the job search obstacles facing you.  

And when you find that job, remember all the wonderful lessons you learned along the way: the business intelligence acquired, the faith, patience and perseverence employed and all the wonderful networking contacts made.  You should always be in a state of career search so don't forget those lessons learned.  See how much stronger and more caring you are now than you were several years ago when everything was easy and not stressful.