It is challenging during a job search to feel gratitude. However, if you surround yourself with supportive people you can more easily feel a sense of gratitude and celebrate your accomplishments.
When you are with people that energize you – you feel alive! Be with people who support your efforts; not solely the results. Like much of life, career and job search is a process with lots of bumps in the road. Enlist the support of your core group. You can call them your “board of directors.” These are your family members, friends, old colleagues, mentors, teachers, coaches, counselor and anyone else who you trust and/or respect.
Since this might be an uncomfortable time for you to socialize with certain friends and family members, it can be an opportunity to build new relationships both personally and professionally.
For example, you might consider joining a meet-up group. Meetup.com is a good site for finding things to do with the friends you already have or even meeting new people. In 2017 there are 32 million users, 280,000 groups available in over 182 countries. Meetup.com is a collection of personal and professional groups. Topics range from food related (brunch and dinner groups), to gardening groups, stitching groups, writing critique groups, business networking groups and many more.
I also recommend that you join professional associations. For every career imaginable, there is an association or organization that offers a variety of resources, opportunities for training and development and networking possibilities. A helpful directory is the encyclopedia of associations to identify associations in your field of interest.
Another productive way to surround yourself with supportive and like-minded people is to start volunteering at a professional association meeting and/or conference. Start with volunteering on committees and let people see your work style, personality style, uniqueness and positive attitude.
These activities can keep you engaged and inspired during your job search.
As a NYC Career Counselor and New York Career Coach who has worked with hundreds of professionals throughout my career, I can attest to the fact that social support is one of the greatest stress reducers and can enhance feelings of gratitude.
Surround Yourself With Supportive People
and Feel A Sense Of gratitude
by Lynn Berger