Blog Post: Banish Your Job Search Avoidance Behavior

I'm typing away while listening to my two sons, ages 8 and 7, do everything except get in the bath-tub, which is where I'd like them to be. Alternately, they're wrestling, organizing stuffed animals, and arguing about who is supposed to be "first" in the tub. If cleanliness truly is next to Godliness, these two are in big trouble long-term.

Their behavior is typical of course. Not just for their age group, but for any age group. We all find diversions to keep us from what we should be focused on. Perhaps you should be preparing for a business interview, but instead you're polishing the nice silverware. Maybe you're avoiding making that difficult phone call to a "friend of a friend" about a job lead, but you've suddenly discovered an obsessive interest in finding your fifth-grade boyfriend on-line.

Sound familiar? The first step in banishing avoidance behavior from your repertoire is to recognize it when it's happening. Then change your attitude toward the task by changing your physical state. Walk away from the computer, put down your grandmother's silverware. Take a quick walk, jump up and down, go into the restroom and make silly faces at yourself in the mirror. Ponder for a moment how you'll feel once the distasteful task is completed. Happy? Relieved? Proud? With your "new" attitude, attack the task you've been avoiding with gusto.

We avoid tasks or circumstances because we imagine how awful the act will be. Yet, rarely is what we fear as bad as we imagine it to be. What makes this especially trying during a job search is that more often than not, we pursue a new position alone. Sitting at a computer, or hunched over a legal pad in the local coffee shop, it's easy to imagine that you're the only one going through this marathon process.

I am afraid of heights. Perhaps you are too. And yet, in June of 2008, I found myself standing 55 feet in the air, perched atop a telephone pole no larger across than your dinner plate. Trying to make that ascent alone, I wouldn't have gotten off the ground. With 35 friends encouraging me on, and a safety harness wrapped snugly around my mid-section, I conquered my quaking knees and made it triumphantly to the top! I was prepared to avoid, and yet with encouragement and accountability to a group, I found the strength to banish my fear.

When you find yourself practicing avoidance behavior in your job search, reach out for a friend or confidant to bolster your confidence. We all have a safety net, sometimes you have to purposefully create the net when you need it most. Try this out, and let me know how it works by leaving a comment or recommendation to this Blog. Thanks! I'm off to check on two clean kids.