Jobs, Sisyphus, Routine, Structure, and Freedom

It’s the fourth of July, and I’ve been thinking a lot about how freedom ties into job searching. In a lot of ways, being out of work can feel like a total lack of freedom. You feel constricted from every corner, and nothing feels like enough – there is always a burden to do a little more to change the situation.

You feel a little bit like Sisyphus, the character from Greek mythology that was cursed by the gods to spend all eternity rolling a giant boulder up a hill. The boulder would never reach the top, and he never achieved this goal.

These feelings occur most often because job search lacks structure. There is only one big goal, which is to find a job. Until that goal is met, you feel like progress isn’t being made. This isn’t a fair amount of pressure to put on yourself. Finding a job does take time, and the fact that you aren’t done with the process yet doesn’t mean you aren’t making good progress towards that goal.

My advice is to set for yourself shorter term goals. For example, imagine if Sisyphus could say, “I’ll roll the boulder up to that tree, and then lodge it against the tree for the night. Tomorrow I’ll roll it up to the next tree.”

The best goals are based around actions, as opposed to results – because you can control actions, and you can’t always control results.. So, for example, a daily goal might be to send ten resumes and cover letters out to prospective employers. This is completely within your control, and once you’ve done the ten for the day (or whatever goal you set), you can step away and feel like you’ve accomplished what you set out to accomplish – because you have!

Note: This post is extracted and adapted from the post by the same name on Tough Economy Jobs.