Are you listening to any self-help or performance oriented podcasts?  If so it won’t be long before you will hear something about pushing your comfort zone.  The challenge is, that if you do that long enough then you expanded your comfort zone.  Then you need to push more.  Sound frustrating?  It doesn’t have to be.

Do one thing a day that makes you a little uncomfortable.

Want to start a new habit?  Then you need to be consistent.  You may be thinking “I am consistent… I am consistently inconsistent.”  But seriously, start something new today that will move you in a positive direction.  I bet, it you think about it for about two minutes, you can think of at least one thing that would improve your life.  And I bet that you have wanted to do it for a while now.  Science has taught us that if we say “I will start doing that or stop doing this tomorrow…”  tomorrow will never come.  Start today!

“There is no future, there is no past.  I live this moment as my last”

Jonathan Larson

So what do you need to do in your jobcerch right now that makes you uncomfortable?  I bet it has something to do with following up with someone or reaching out to a few contacts.  Most people don’t like networking.  Think of sales people… most of them do not like doing cold calls.  But the successful people do it because they know it leads to success.

I know what you are doing… you are emailing them, right?  That is OK for today but in two days I want you to call that person and when they answer the phone, you ask them “Hello, this is Al Pollard.  I am following up our email from Wednesday.”  They are then most likely scrambling to figure out what the email was about.  Now is your time… hit them with your elevator pitch.

But I don’t like “selling” myself.

OK, that is fine.  The other applicants for that position might not like it either.  But if a few of them do it and you don’t, it will put you out of the running.  You only need one job but at the same time a company only needs one butt in each seat.  Will it be yours?

When we think of sales we usually think of some guy named “The Dog” (I actually know him and he is a really nice guy) who calls over and over and over…  Or maybe you are thinking of that kid from Better Off Dead… “I want my two dollars.”  What we don’t think about are the friends who sell us things every day.  Why do you like what you like?  I bet someone “sold” you on the product, or on the idea of shopping at that store.  Sales is not a bad thing.

What is on the other side of fear?  Nothing.

Jamie Foxx

Not many of us have the focus, determination and the fearlessness of Jamie Foxx but we can learn from him.  In his interview with Tim Ferriss, Jamie talks about his life and the obstacles he has overcome and continues to face.  What obstacles are you creating for yourself in your jobcerch?

Al

Your perspective on life comes from the cage you were held captive in.
Shannon L. Alder