Moving Past the Doldrums

Moving Past the Doldrums

I found myself in a bit of an unusual place in February. Usually my life is relatively active and busy. During the course of a given week, between job search support groups, client sessions, professional association meetings, and my own personal errands, I find my weeks pretty busy. However, in the middle of February, a few things happened that slowed me down a bit. The weather where I live in the Northeast had days where it got icy and cold, and somewhat unsafe to drive, keeping me indoors more. My client load lessen, as a client landed, another decided to pull back on his search, and other clients ran into ailments of their own. For the first time in three years, I got sick. There were about 2 or 3 unpleasant days where eating was the last thing on my mind.
I don’t know about you, but sometimes when things change for me, I can find myself easily distracted. Signing onto and working on my computer became less an activity where I was researching information for a new acclimation client, or writing informative information to share with my clients, but instead “surfing the web” often attracting the most meaningless nonsense posted. When bored with that, I’d pass the time with computer video games, (FreeCell is my favorite). And, while my FreeCell success rate was going up, my feelings as to my self-worth dropped. This went on for the better part of 1 to 2 weeks. So, how was I able to move forward from it?

One activity that I knew was going to be part of my February going into the month was the administrative work I do annually in support of a charity dinner of which I have been a part. Entering the month, I had set my mindset that I would slot that work between client meetings, perhaps in the evening or on the weekends. It finally clicked with me that when my weekdays were affording me time, it allowed me time to focus on the administrative work for the dinner during the day.

In addition to the work that was part of this process that I did in the earlier stages of preparation, I was able to move forward to items I traditionally scheduled for the end of the process. I had the time. As long as I coordinated everything correctly, I would be in good shape. It turned out that the administrative work I did for the dinner was done earlier than in any past year, allowing me time to enjoy the day before the dinner set-up tasks and the dinner itself as a reward for being on top of things earlier. In addition, while client contacts were slow, those that I did have during the period had more meaning. Even when my physical condition was at its worse, it appeared to get better when I was working with a client, listening to their progress, helping them with strategies to move their life and searches forward. While I like to think I do that all the time, it really came through to me, given that I was not feeling my best, and the sessions uplifted me.

The Mark Twain quote on the Absolute Transitions website for March says it well, “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” One of the challenges that many of the job searchers I meet face once they realize the types of steps they need to take, is getting started. Sometimes it comes from overwhelm of wondering which tasks they should do first Other times it comes from the distaste of doing tasks that they are recommended to do at all. (Again, getting distracted by the stimulus around them, instead of focusing on the task at hand they say they want to commit themselves to at the moment).

We all get distracted in terms of focusing on the things we either say we should be doing or feel we should be doing. And, while we may beat ourselves up over it, the key is recognizing it, determining what we may want to focus on next, and getting started with it. From there, often the pieces of our life fall back into place, and we get back into our usual flow before the doldrums caught up with us.