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By Root 563 0

the same way that sales-persons feed their sales funnel: so many leads, so many calls, so many interviews. Like a good salesperson, you need to track and record your efforts. You must keep a record to show yourself that you are making progress. If you can visually see progress, you will have an extra incentive to keep at it. If you’ve completed 10 calls today, then record it. If you have sent out a batch of networking letters, note that, too. I encourage my friends to chart their accomplishments on the wall as I do because “seeing is believing.” Note how many interviews you’ve scheduled, calls you’ve made, callbacks you’ve noted, and research you’ve completed. It is critical to be able to view your job-hunting funnel to ensure you have adequate leads to provide a steady supply of interviews.

➤ Step 4: Think Positive

As Henry Ford once said, “Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right.” It is important for you to believe you’ll succeed. You must convince yourself, through your own self-talk, that you are successful. Write out positive affirmations about your job-hunting skills such as the following:

• I interview well.

• I come across with confidence in interviews.

• I find the perfect positions that use and grow all my talents.

Keep your statements in the present, not the future tense. Read your list every day. Post it at eye level as a subliminal motivator. You can be your own worst enemy or your biggest fan. Give yourself credit for what you’ve completed and don’t beat yourself up over what you haven’t yet accomplished. Work at a steady pace with your end goal in mind. Your new job, and the burst of self-esteem that comes with it, will be worth all the effort. I’m not kidding. Start doing this right now.

GUERRILLA TIPS

• Regard every “no” as a “not today” and a step closer to “yes.” This book explains how to repackage and repitch yourself until the persuasion works.

• Monitor your self-talk. Only you have the power to change your attitude and your perspective. Keep a vigilant eye out for negative self-talk. Notice what you are saying to yourself as you move through your search. Your mental dialogue can boost your esteem or drag you down.

• Measure yourself by your own standards. Avoid comparing yourself with others. People aren’t going to tell you things are tough in their lives. When you ask how they are doing, they usually will say, “Great, never better,” which will make you feel like crap. That’s just their game face; they are not doing any better than you are. You are the only person you need to please. If you stick with your plan, you will achieve success.

• When someone suggests you try something new—do it. Guerrillas aren’t afraid to try new things and fail. I recently had a woman tell me that none of my ideas would work, although she hadn’t tried even one of the 50 suggestions I gave her—which might explain why she has been unemployed for 2 years.

• Stay healthy. Get enough sleep, eat well, and exercise. A brisk walk at noon will burn off the “blues” and ward off the flu. See your doctor if you are always sad. If it is wintertime, you may not be getting enough sunlight.

• Be social. Get out and see your friends and don’t talk about your job hunt all the time, but do let people feed you leads and encourage you.

GUERRILLA INTELLIGENCE

Sally Poole

After hiring and working with this employee for about a year, she told me what she did to get the job. She was almost destitute, living in a new town where she knew no one, and had no way to produce a resume. So she thought to herself, “Where are there plenty of unused computers that I might use?” She came up with an idea and called the local school district to find out the name of the superintendent. Then she called a nearby school, told them she was the superintendent’s niece from out of town, and could she use a computer to type up a report for school? They actually escorted her to the computer room, she typed up her resume, printed copies, and got out quick. I liked her tenacity,