How to manage disappointment during career transition
Dealing with disappointment when you are looking for a (new) job can be really tough. It’s hard not to take it personally. Feedback is vague. And before you know it, you’ve become cynical. Expecting rejection before you’ve even sent the next application.
Karin Weiser
Recognise yourself? So how do you move forward and get back in the game after disappointment?
Manage the emotion
All emotions are an invitation to greater self-awareness. Allow yourself to feel your disappointment. Never push it away. Just don’t wallow in it for days on end. Energy flows where the attention goes. So consciously decide to move on.
How?
Change state
Sometimes physical movement or simply doing something which absorbs your senses will help take your mind off the situation. Helping you to put it behind you. Consider going for a walk to ‘walk it out of your system.’
Everything is energy
Emotions consist of energy. The thoughts and the feelings you harbour in your head and heart are the energy you use to frame your current situation. Bruce Schneider, author of Energy Leadership: Transforming your Workplace and Your Life from the Core, views energy as our most personal resource. In his book he describes two forms of energy in our lives.
Anabolic and catabolic energy
Anabolic energy is constructive, expanding, healing and growth-oriented. It motivates and inspires. It releases endorphins. It helps you move forward and achieve long-term goals.
Catabolic energy is draining, resisting and contracting. It releases cortisol and adrenalin. This energy can narrow your focus and make you less open. And it keeps you stuck where you are.
Anabolic energy rocks!
In short, the wrong mindset limits your success, capabilities, performance and engagement. Approach your job search with anabolic energy. This will give you the biggest likelihood of success. Be aware of what affects your energy and manage it as best you can. This will include your social and physical environments, physical, mental and emotional health, as well as your values.
“Everything is Energy and that is all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics”
Albert Einstein
Don’t take it personally
It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking there’s something wrong with you. Or you don’t have enough x, y or z. Don’t take it personally. There was another candidate who had what they were looking for.
Add power to your process and reframe
There’s always a flip side to not getting a job. Reflect on what that might be for you. Ask yourself what can I learn from this? How can I grow from this experience?
‘Life is a matter of choices, and every choice you make makes you.’ John C Maxwell
Choose a winner mindset rather than become a victim. Remind yourself your journey continues down another path. And continue with your head held up high believing the best is yet to come.
Photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash
Karin Weiser
International Business Coach (ICF-ACC) and Writer
Transition Specialist who supports ambitious professionals in transition in their career and life with conversations that matter. I help ambitious professionals to write the next chapter of their career story. To own it, walk it and talk it. I have rewritten my story many times - moved countries, climbed the corporate ladder, zigzagged in my career. I stand for diversity, well-being and lifelong learning. In 2019 I took a life leap to self-employment. Proud to be a Psychologies Ambassador and ICF Barefoot certified coach (ACC). My WHY is to have a positive impact on people - in person, virtually and through words. British by birth, global by choice - I'm based in Copenhagen and work globally. My personal recipe for a balanced life includes a splash of optimism, yoga and dark chocolate.
