Loving Monday: Remembering The Truth About You
For too many people these days, Monday morning does not begin a new week at work. Monday begins a new week of looking for work.
Having a bad job can wear one down, but having no job can wear one out.
The experience of repeated rejections is difficult not to make personal and internalize.
We lose confidence. We lose energy. We begin to think that we might be the problem and not the economy.
It is in this situation that Monday becomes a weekly opportunity to pause and remind ourselves of the truth. The truth about ourselves, our skills, our capabilities and our character. The truth about the job market. 12% unemployment is unparalleled in our working lives. This is no ordinary cyclical recession that we can wait out.
The title of the column, “Loving Monday,” almost sounds like someone is mocking our pain. How can we love beginning another week of hustling ourselves to a working world that has curled up into a fetal position in the corner until some undisclosed future time when it feels safe to make commitments again?
The truth, though, is that you are a valuable professional. You bring a marvelous set of skills, perspectives, experiences, personality, attitude, and competencies.
Regardless of the economic reality by which so many businesses find themselves constrained, you have value. Enormous value.
This fact is the truth that needs to be reengaged each Monday morning as you launch another strenuous week of telephone calls, letters, emails, coffees, lunches, networking efforts, and interviews.
While always tiring, while sometimes discouraging, while occasionally depressing, our continued job hunting efforts nonetheless give credence to the larger truth. The truth that we have value.
If you need a more personal reminder of the deeper truth of your value, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
On your side,
- Karl Edwards
