• Create more time! Get up earlier.  Looking for a job takes time and the only thing you need more of is time.

• Stay up later to do your job search if your not an early bird.

• Create the right work space free of distractions, move around, if your at home all the time try the library or coffee shops for variety.

• Stay motivated!! Reward yourself.  Push yourself!  Set higher goals!  I will apply for so many jobs every day, every week.

• Be accountable!  We all falter left to our own devices!

• Encourage someone else who is out of work when you find jobs that fit them.

• Establish a sense of teamwork or network so others know what your looking for and can email it to you when they are on the web.  Two eyes are better than one!

• Don’t just use the same methods.  Use as many different methods as possible.

• NETWORK, NETWORK AND WHEN YOU ARE TIRED NETWORK!!

• JOB FAIRS!!  Spring is coming and you may need to go to another city but having your FACE in front of them is better than just a piece of paper.

• Admit when your struggling and seek some support through your social network.  Folks out of work for over 6 months face discouragement.

• Apply for jobs you may not consider to be your first choice.  Times are tough so be realistic!

• Be willing to relocate, commute further or take a cut in pay to find work.

• Use FACEBOOK to network with every last soul on earth!!!  Find your grammar school seatmate.

• It is far easier to steer a moving vehicle than one that is parked so remember to ACT everyday in some powerful way to get what you want down the road.

• Consider taking classes to learn a new skill.  Community colleges, Adult education, the library or local school may have some inexpensive ones.

• Consider working on your own business. You have the time so figure out what you have always wanted to do.

• Take on a new hobby to unwind.  You need it right now more than ever!

• Seek out at least 10 search engines.  I know people who only use the newspaper for their search.  DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE OUT OF WORK RIGHT NOW???

• Volunteer, Join clubs,  build new skills,

• Talk to everyone you know and those you don’t.

• If you live in a big city consider going to a popular or trendy restaurant, hot spot or bar and you know who knows everyone in town?  The bar tender does so talk to him about jobs.  He already knows all the big guys in town.

• You can also hit your local church and talk to the pastor.

• Don’t fool yourself, if you feel you have been unproductive, you are right, you can fool everyone but not yourself.  Work at it harder!!

GO PLACES YOU HAVE NEVER GONE BEFORE TO GET DIFFERENT RESULTS!!!

ROME WASN’T BUILT IN A DAY, BUT I AM SURE THEY HAD A ROCKING PLAN TO GET THERE!!!!

It could be a business deal, a relationship, our diet goals or personal goals.  Up for a promotion but keep showing up late to work all the time?  Go to a job interview and screw it up, maybe you did it on purpose.

We sell ourselves short or just even defeat ourselves over and over and over again.  See, if I screw it up then you didn’t really reject me.  Basically, I rejected myself, so you can’t.

Are you your own worst enemy?  Do you keep falling short of the mark you set for yourself and then beat yourself up afterwards.  Could be your setting the mark ridiculously high for  yourself.  Were your parents hard on you?  You learned this behavior somewhere in life.  But, it is not really working for you anymore.

It is important to achieve high goals, but not to beat yourself up when you fall short.  Also, if the mark is so extremely high you will always feel you can’t reach it and it becomes self-defeating.

Could also be you don’t believe at some level that you deserve it so you sabotage yourself.  Sound crazy.  Well when was the last time you told yourself your getting out of debt and then racked up your credit card bill.  Know anyone who tries to diet and then eats more of everything bad in sight.  Almost like a compulsive kind of behavior.

Are you trying to punish yourself for something?  Could be unresolved issues from childhood.  Counseling could help.  Life coaching looks more at behavior and changing it right away.

The key to stopping self-sabotage is recognizing it.  If we don’t call a spade a spade it won’t be seen as one.  So the first step in any recovery process is the desire to STOP IT!!  Once you desire change you are on the road to recovery.

Self- sabotage is tricky because it is a dysfunctional behavior pattern and it is based on a limited way of thinking about ourselves.  Somehow we don’t believe we are worth more.  Deep down inside we have given up on ourselves.

We have dug our own rut and are stuck in it!

You have to challenge your beliefs. You might need a journal and some time to reflect.  Write out what is happening, what you are doing over and over.  What are you telling yourself.  You need to reprogram your self-talk.

You also need to focus on pushing yourself toward what you really deserve in life.  You are worth the promotion, the better relationship, succeeding at your goals.  You have to change what you believe first to stop the behavior.

Sometimes it requires a step back.  Where did you learn this unhealthy behavior?  It is time to unlearn it!  Refocus your attention toward things that will help you grow and heal.  This may require some life coaching.

Whatever you do be sure and TAKE A STEP FORWARD in the right direction toward what you deserve in life.  Become your own best friend and not your worst enemy.  Don’t throw yourself under that bus ever again!!

Sometimes I believe we form our own conspiracy theory against ourselves and vote ourselves off the island.  Remember you are not the only one who sees it.  The world is watching when you treat yourself that way too.  They confer along with you and then you form an alliance of self-hatred and the cycle continues. But you are better than that.  Deep down you know your just stuck.

Sometimes we suffer self-defeat to the point that we shut down, turn off the lights and say when others call, “Nobody’s home here.” In short, we short-circuit ourselves or give up on ourselves.  We can’t tolerate our own annoying habits or quirks.  We can’t forgive ourselves for not being perfect.  Who ever taught you that you had to be perfect.  They were DEAD wrong!!

These feelings may be rooted in a loss of approval or loss of love you felt at some point in your life from someone who loved or approved of you less for some behavior.  You may have experienced rejection from family or a spouse. They did you wrong.

Life has many challenges and battles to fight, but if we spend most of our time battling our own inner demons we will never move forward to face LIFE and conquer the larger battles.  This isn’t true for everyone.  Some people have higher levels of self-acceptance about their faults and some of us just plain beat ourselves up about them.

So, when struggling with self-defeat, how do you move forward?  You have to stop focusing on yourself as the problem. You must accept where you are at, show yourself the same grace and kindness you might show someone else struggling with those nasty habits.

Now I am sure I don’t have to name self-defeating behavior, but if you want it spelled out for you… excess spending, eating shopping, gambling, drinking.  Maybe you just can’t stand the fact that you waste time, daydream, procrastinate or can’t ever get MORE ORGANIZED.

Behaviors are learned and can be unlearned.  When trying to replace a self-defeating behavior with a non self-defeating behavior you have one major obstacle.  YOU!!  Stop getting in the way of your own success.  Focus on the solutions not belittling yourself.  You may be the messiest or messed up person in town but you can change ANY behavior.

Give yourself a time frame to work with.  I will do X by this date.  Now FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS, Whatever you can’t stand about yourself you can work on.  Be realistic.  There are experts you can consult, I have seen a book written on every subject known to man.  You may need a life coach.

Break your own cycle.  You know what happens if you get stuck on a bicycle?  It goes round and round and you never get off.  You also annoy the people around you to death and you even stop peddling fast enough after awhile.  You shut down.  So whatever it takes for you to climb up off that bicycle- DO IT! Change begins with a goal, a desire, an end result in mind.  Break things down into micro steps.

Ever see the movie What About Bob?  Bill Murray plays a very compulsive and dysfunctional adult who can’t even get on an elevator or go anywhere without his psychologist.  Richard Dreyfuss, the psychologist, then teaches him to take BABY STEPS.  He learns to combat his fears while saying things like baby steps to the elevator, then baby steps out of the building.  It is quite funny. Laugh at yourself!

When feeling overwhelmed with changing something difficult, recognize your baby steps. That is how a baby learns to walk, one tiny step at a time and then the beautiful metamorphosis to a full-fledged adult who takes larger steps.

No more voting yourself off the island. You are a valuable part of this human race and you can learn to be unstuck in any difficult area of your life.  Just don’t quit on the most important thing ever- YOURSELF!

I have been putting off writing this article, truly I have been meaning to do it but things kept getting in my way. Funny, but true.

If you are a procrastinator you’ll appreciate this story.  Stephen Sampogna recently returned an overdue copy of Sherlock Holmes to the library 45 years late!!  Ironically, they glorified his procrastination with an exhibit in his honor and waived his fines.  His book is on display in Maryland with a sign that reads, “Never Too Late.”

This is the trouble with procrastination, we have a tendency to glorify it, when in fact it gets in our way.  Now answer this: Does procrastination have a negative impact on your life or the lives of those around you?  If it does you need to do something about it.

We procrastinate because of lack of organization, think time, pre-planning, time management and failure to prioritize.  Sometimes we just want to avoid difficult tasks, can’t sit still long enough or our thoughts race ahead of us.  We might be afraid to fail so we put things off.  We think we need more time when what we really need is to just, “Get R Done!” as Larry the Cable guy says.

The first step in dealing with procrastination is to break things down into smaller bite size pieces.  Think of a Chunky candy bar, bite off one mouth size piece at a time and start chewing.

Use time chunking to divide your 8 hour day up.  Figure out what is a priority today but keep in mind your deadlines approaching around the bend and start on those tasks as well.  For example, I have things pressing that must be done today.  I do them first, but make sure I allow at least some chunk of time to begin tasks that will need to be done in a few weeks.

Are you avoiding writing your resume?  You would be surprised how 15 minutes can move you a lot closer to the finish line.  In 15 minutes you can pick out the paper, make a list of colorful verbs from a thesaurus, read a sample resume online for brainstorming and begin your mission statement.

Just remember that you become more of what you give into.  If you give into procrastination, you become a procrastinator.  You might be highly creative but if you don’t focus in the right direction you are choosing to create chaos, disorder and stress in your life by accepting procrastination as just part of your life.  Don’t settle for bad habits, break free and eliminate the stress of procrastination!

I recently read a fun children’s story about all the different ways to eat vegetables and came up with this analogy about solving problems in life:

There are so many ways to get vegetables in the diet.  I don’t like tomatoes, but I love fresh salsa.  I won’t cut up an avocado but love guacamole.  Too lazy to make a salad, but how about a salad in a bag or a salad bar.

Won’t boil the beans but love three bean salad from the deli.  Won’t cook zucchini but love zucchini bread and heard zucchini chocolate cake is fabulous!  Won’t catch me eating seaweed, but love it in a sushi roll.

Catch my drift?  So it is with solving all of life’s problems.  There is more than one way to fry a fish.  There are so many different angles or approaches to solving our problems in life we limit ourselves when we think there is only one solution.

We may even beat ourselves up because we don’t take the road most traveled by others.  We often stop ourselves from moving forward when we don’t like the one solution and we could examine the possibility of multiple solutions.

A coach is an expert at brainstorming sessions and helping you creatively solve your problems.  One of my specialities is thinking outside the box.  Sign up for one session of coaching today and lets BRAINSTORM some SOLUTIONS together!!

The classic suit is navy blue, black or grey.  It is simple, yet distinctive.  Ever notice if you have been to a job fair that everyone is all dressed alike?  It looks like a sea of clones in the same suits.

With the challenges of finding a job today, consider a little more color or pizazz to make you stand out.  I saw a women at a job fair wearing a bright and I mean bright mustard yellow dress.

She was the only one standing out.  People said she was from Los Angeles.  That explains it.  Well any extra advantage mentally sets you ahead today.  After an interviewer has seen hundreds of people in line.  They may really remember her just because of the colorful dress.  One man even wore a chicken suit.  You decide if its worth it to be traditional or stand out.

But what we MUST remember to PUT ON is the MAN or WOMAN in the suit.  Don’t leave the BEST of you at home due to fears, anxiety, looming recession talk.

Just like an actor, the SHOW MUST GO ON.  The curtain rises and its time for your performance.  But its YOU on stage.  The REAL YOU, the BEST OF YOU.  You see it every day, make sure the interviewer sees it TODAY.

First, Clear your mind of all extraneous self-talk.  Stop the comments about what if I don’t get the job.  Lets create yourself in this interview as someone powerful.

What do you bring to an interview?  I am not talking about a briefcase, portfolio, samples of prior work, references, yellow pad and pen.  These are all important.  I am talking about you personally.

Make a list of your 5 most powerful traits and visualize yourself putting them on and demonstrating them in the interview.  I am friendly and an extrovert, so I smile confidently at everyone.  Ask how their day is going?  The interviewer is human like yourself.  Ask them if they had any good interviews.  Make a joke.

I am highly creative and intuitive.  I demonstrated this in an interview by listening for what was important to the interviewer.  Her company did a lot of gift giving to potential clients.  So instead of the classic thank you after the interview I gave her a case of caffeine free diet coke because I saw one coke on her desk.  I noticed what was important to both her and her company.  I got the job by the way!!

YOU have to be FULLY PRESENT in the interview.  You know if we are unsure about if we want the job, want to make the move or so afraid of not getting it we communicate this in our body language.  You must be PRESENT in the moment in a powerful way.

Talk yourself up before you get there.  You are SELLING yourself.  What are your key selling points.  I am good at sales and have learned to sell anything.  Sell yourself UP!

I might be going for a job out of my league, well what I bring, is an excitement about the opportunity, fresh ideas, a willingness to learn, a love for people, good communication skills all these things we know are TRANSFERABLE SKILLS.

Consider a session with a coach to brush up on interview skills.  Even have yourself videotaped and get some feedback before the big day.

The movie was inspiring as it is a true story about Michael Oher who was adopted by a family.  Before his adoption, he was a diamond in the rough.  He was not successful at school, very slow academically and practically homeless.  After he improved his grades he went on to become a huge football star sought out by all the professional college teams.  One thing in particular that made him successful at football is that he always scored high in protective instincts.  It was his second nature to look out for others.

This concept of the Blind Side I find rather intriguing.  We all have blind spots.  But, in business who has got your back?  Who in your company is looking out for your blind side?  You may not think you have any but usually everyone else sees it but you.

Our blind spots often keep us from growth because we don’t know what we don’t know.  A coach can come into  business and interview everyone privately and come up with an objective or outside view.

Who’s got your blind side?  This applies to individuals as well.  There can be reasons we never reach our goals in life but we just don’t get it.  You may never be able to move forward on your own without someone else pointing out your issues.  This is the foundation of life coaching.

Have you ever taken a Blocks Exam?  It is not about tackling like in football.  It is more about how we tackle life and what can block us from success.  There are over 20 items on a blocks list.  Do you know what is blocking you?  You can complete a blocks list in one session of coaching.  Sign up today!!

Well as with any medicine please consult your doctor first before trying this prescription.  I am not a trained medical person, nor therapist.  However, I do see a pattern that life coaching can help.

Depression is like a bruise where the skin recedes in.  We become incredibly inward focused.  One of the best cures for depression is to do something for someone else.  Can you volunteer one hour once a week to mentor a child at a local school district.  I guarantee you that you will feel better once you get inside the problems of someone else.

What about the people in your life, family friends, co-workers.  Start to think more about others and what you can do for them.  Depression is being stuck inside yourself and what is going wrong in your own life.

Depression often manifests itself in self-neglect.  How is your self-care right now?  Are you taking care of your physical appearance?  Imagine a triangle in your life, with spiritual, emotional,  and physical on the three prongs.  If any are way out of balance it can contribute to depression.

If you are not eating right, not getting sleep, never exercise these things can help you to deal with depression.  Exercise produces feel good feelings and helps the mental outlook.  Yoga has been said to help with depression.

Do you have a strong support system in your life?  People to encourage you or just talk to when things are going rough. Surround yourself with people who make you feel good.  Seek out healthy relationships with people that challenge you to see the best and stretch yourself.

I have seen people go on medication for depression and not change their behavior.  Do you isolate yourself?  This is going to contribute to more depression.

Do you have repeated negative self-talk?  This contributes to depression.  I am never going to…. I can’t do that…….  Nobody loves me…..You limit yourself and the focus is negative.  Try placing inspiring and motivating quotes on the bathroom mirror, the frig.  You will need to challenge your negative thoughts to replace them with more positive ones.

A good suggestion is to listen to life coaching tapes, available at the library under the self-help section.  Experts in life coaching have a way of presenting this that can help you to erase the negative mental tapes you replay over and over in your head.

Depression is a lack of energy.  You will need to create the positive outflow of energy in your life. What is it that you want in life you are not getting?  What can you do about it?  Changes can help you to move forward in an exciting way.  Make a list of 10 things you love to do and find time for in your life.

Do you have friends or family members you see in a state of depression and don’t know what to do?  Sometimes it is the simple things that matter.  Love on them, encourage them, remind them of what they mean to you.  Include them even if they seem down or detached.  Invite them to do things.  Physical touch is important to a depressed person.

Spirituality is key in overcoming depression.  Consider reviving your spiritual life by attending a local church, consulting with a pastor or attending a spiritual retreat.  Depression is like a red flag that things are out of balance in our lives and we need to seek out the comfort faith and God can bring us.

Depression always limits us, it limits our thinking, our positive behavior, our actions so take a step today toward overcoming depression and you will begin to feel better.

Everyday you get up and you make CHOICES in your life.  CONSIDER if your CHOICES are LIMITING YOUR LIFE.  Make CHOICES to MOVE in the right direction. DEAL with your depression don’t let it STEAL from the quality of your life.

I think we have a shortage of integrity these days.  Look at the divorce rate.  Do we mean what we say and say what we mean.  Integrity goes two ways.  It is a promise to someone else but also a promise to yourself.

If you say your going to set out and accomplish something do you do it?  YOU need to be able to count on yourself in life to accomplish your own GOALS.  If you fail yourself all the time than you begin to doubt yourself.  If you can’t follow through you won’t get far.

We diminish the power in our lives when we fail at integrity.  Even when it is a little thing.  The battle for life is lost in the little concessions or giving into very tiny things.  Just one more drink makes the difference between drinking and a drunk.

How do people get to a place they never can find a way back from? It happens through small compromises or battles fought and lost along the way that lead to the bigger battles impossible to fight.

In the end when we short our character we fail to have a character that is tall enough to stand up for much in all of life.  To make our lives more successful and powerful we need to follow through on what we say all the time.

If people can’t count on you there goes your business, your friends, even your marriage.  If you can’t count on yourself there goes your dreams and your future you wanted to create for yourself.

So lets make promises we can keep, lets mean what we say and say what we mean.  Lets go deeper in being honest with ourselves.  Not sure you can commit to a goal or a person than don’t .  When you finally do lets go all the way.

In finding the strength to commit through life’s hardest times we find the BEST of ourselves.  Our character grows and develops.  It is people of integrity that will be leaders, change nations and shape the future.  Because people will look up to others who do what they say and say what they mean:  Keep their promises.

Who sits at the front of your business?  I’ll bet its your receptionist or secretary who greets most people when they walk in.  Did you know that everyone’s impression of them is from you.  If they are having a bad day so will your company.

I remember walking into a company and being asked about their receptionist.  Well they looked busy, overwhelmed and distracted.  Were they friendly-No!

The FACE of your company is really solely that front end person.  Maybe it is a sales representative that goes out to meet and greet the public.

Their number one priority when someone enters through your door should be to WOW them.  Good business always begins with a warm fuzzy.  How is your day?  Did you find a place to park, need any extra quarters?  I have some coffee, tea, soda etc.  How about a seat?

But beyond that you need someone guarding the front gate of your business who is primarily a people person.  Someone who is warm and can make strong connections with people.  Someone with common sense enough to pick up on things and handle complaints.

I rarely see businesses that excel at this.  Some businesses have friendly people but don’t place enough emphasis on the meet and greet.  You can lose someone in a moment.

Once when traveling to Chicago I stopped in a chain restaurant on the way to a job interview.  I will never forget the lady who greeted me, asked about my day and where I was going.  She made my day by taking the time to confirm my directions and give me a word of encouragement about the interview.  When I left I felt WOWED.

I thought to myself does this chain of restaurants hire only extroverted people.  Whatever, it worked for me enough to change my habit of business.  Now when I go through Chicago I always stop at this restaurant.  They gave me a reason to come back.

People are frantically busy in today’s world.  If you make a strong connection with them you have SOLD a customer for life on your business.

Consider being mystery shopped by a business coach and have your front-end evaluated.