Working in the mental health field to help individuals with mental illness return to work, I stay current with articles, blog posts and books in my designated field.
One common tool in mental health is rethinking, or “reframing” one’s thoughts. Essentially, this means transforming a negative thought and replacing it with a positive one. Lisa M. Najavits, author of
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Seeking Safety
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wrote rethinking tools to change your thinking. I have selected some of the most relevant options, to which Lisa referred and applied to a job or career search:
Imagine- Suppose that you have an upcoming interview and you experienced panic attacks. Possible solution? Imagine that your interview will go well. Athletes know this technique as positive visualization to imagine how you want the future event to be.
Praise yourself. Let’s say that you were not the successful job candidate. Do a prognosis or what things you did well. This is known as positive reinforcement. In other words, record your successes, no matter how small. Perhaps you made it to the final round of the interview process over someone else.
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Examine the evidence
-Apply the principles of a scientist or private investigator. Quite often, we are tempted to confuse the actual facts (the real truth!), versus quick opinions or judgements that derail our confidence quickly. A phrase such as “I didn’t get the promotion because my CO (commanding officer)….” In examining the facts, are they true 100%? Have I gone to the right source to gather the evidence?
Learning to rethink negative situations takes practice. The next time negative self-talk invades your mind, stop yourself and ask yourself, “How can I rethink this thought to feel better?”
Rome wasn’t built in a day. Keep going forward in your job or career search.
Melissa Martin is a bilingual career coach and military to civilian transition specialist.
www.military2civilianemployment.com
Brainstorm
- Try to identify as many interpretations or explanations of a negative situation as possible. For example, if a potential employer was supposed to tell you if you had been the successful hire and you didn’t hear anything, you may leap to “What a jerk that interviewer was! He didn’t have the decency to call me on the promised date!” A reinterpretation could be,” Well, the company did hint that they were expecting their contract to be renewed. Maybe there’s been a delay or something happened behind closed doors.” This scenario happens often in the civilian world. The lesson? Control the controllables and carry on.
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