Motivational Mondays: Stop and Ask For Directions
People like to talk. I learned that from the grocer at the checkout aisle in ShopRite and the sales associate in American Eagle who asked me my whole life story. They want to feel needed, useful, important.
But you know what’s funny about that?
They hate asking for help.
I’m a little worried we’re all stuck in a sci-fi movie, morphing into the same creature: a stubborn middle-aged man on a family vacation who made a wrong turn somewhere back there.
“Just pull over and ask for directions,” his wife says from the passenger seat. She’s rifling through the glove compartment for the atlas he tried to throw out a few years back during a mid-life crisis, my-life-is-too-cluttered moment.
He shakes his head and keeps driving, narrowly avoiding careening off a cliff when he pumps his brakes hard and stops the front tires from tipping over the edge.
I sometimes think that’s what it takes for us to realize we need help; we need to ask for directions.
The great thing is, the grocer and the sales associate and your university’s career services counselor all want to help you. They’ll tell you in which aisle you’ll find the instant mashed potatoes and what percent discount you’ll receive on that new t-shirt and how to start your job search.
Yes, there are people in the world who can help you. People whose job it is to find you a job. Imagine that.
Imagine the middle-aged man pulling over his Caravan and asking the gum-cracking convenience store clerk where he made a wrong turn on the road map to life.
That’s what it feels like when you hit a brick wall in your job search. But the good news is that so many people are lined up all over the Internet waiting to help you. Like volunteers at the water break stations during a marathon.
So if you’ve hit that wall or reached the edge of that cliff and you’re hanging on, waiting for a sign to magically appear in front of you, don’t. Start asking questions and sharing your story and talking to people who have that job you’d love.
Find out what worked for them and learn from their mistakes. Learn from the others who came before you and help the ones after you. The Internet is having one giant conversation, so join the discussion.
And start today. Right now. We just opened our forums where you can chat about networking, interviewing, the job search, unemployment, and more. In a few clicks, you could be well on your way down the right path.
