In these challenging times...it's hard to remember that there are unlimited possibilities. In this pod we talk about how to use creative visualization for job search and general motivational success. Tips for making it work and challenges to try with the 'playground of your brain'.

Additional resources

• Using visualization before a job interview
• Daily listen with Earl Nightingale about taking action
• Linn County trails to get outside on
• Hiking in Johnson County

Good morning. Hi, Liz.

Are you? Good? How are you?

Doing great. Still drinking my coffee,

enjoying my morning?

Yeah, it's a, it's a good morning here in Cedar

Rapids.

Um, well, let's go ahead and talk about some

career stuff, which is what we do at quarter careers. February

6, is an important day, if you are a job seeker.

And you're like, Yeah, I want to know,

you should go pick up a Gazette on Sunday,

February 6, because there's going to be a lot of

advertisements on it. And those advertisements are going to have

local employers that are hiring right now. And it's going to

talk about what jobs they might be hiring for. So February six,

Sunday, make sure to pick up your Sunday Gazette. And check

out who's hiring. Yeah.

I'm sure there's gonna be good to some good news

in there, too. Absolutely. And a Sunday crossword. So we're, you

can't go wrong there.

Yeah, there's multiple multiple uses for it

right. Most importantly, you're gonna see a lot of employers

advertising open jobs. Sunday, February 6, so go, go pick that

up? Um, well, let's get into our topic today, which is going to

be visualization. So I, I think about so I'm a golfer. I played

a lot of golf growing up. And maybe if you're a golfer, you

can relate to this. But when I think about visualization, I

think about like seeing my golf shot before I hit the golf shot.

Yeah, I'm like trying to like picture what it's gonna look

like before I hit it. And most of the time, that does not

happen on the golf course. Ball goes the opposite direction of

where you want to go. But I think that's, like when I think

visualization, that's the first thing that comes to my mind. As

a job seeker. There are some different applications for

visualization. So would you like to go over those?

Yeah, let's talk about a couple ways that

creative visualization can help you as a job seeker. It's a

totally free method to improve your job search. And hopefully,

we'll give you some ideas. Or you can try this out today and

try it right after this. This podcast. Cool. All right, well,

let's just start with one. So here's, here's one way, so you

talked about being able to see the golf ball. One of the ways

that I've used creative visualization of the past, has

been through visualizing how I'm going to feel. And so here's

what I recommend for your golf swing is like, you know, when

you hit the perfect swing, what that feels like, So visualizing

yourself and kind of going through the motions, and it

helps to sometimes close your eyes, and like feel the feelings

that you would feel if you had that perfect swing. And so to

bring that back to the job search method, I think one of

the things that is difficult for job seekers these days,

especially with everything that's going on in the world, it

was just anyone doesn't have to be a job seeker. Everyone's

dealing with anxiety and overwhelm right now, there's

just a collective sense of like, how heavy the times are these

days. And creative visualization can help with that a little bit

and give you a sense of control. Because when you're visualizing

something, it hasn't happened yet. And so you can control what

you think of when it happens, hopefully. And so, one thing

that you can do is like when you're in a relaxed state, so

let's just say first thing, when you're waking up in the morning,

you can say, Okay, I'm going to spend five minutes going through

a visualization today. And it could just be I'm going to

visualize myself sitting at my computer to start my job search

today. And we're going to visualize myself feeling

relaxed. And just imagining yourself feeling relaxed, and I

like to tie it to a trigger. So typically, if I'm doing a

visualization, I'll be like, okay, when I open the door to my

office, I feel relaxed. And then I go through kind of step by

step. So the first step would be open the door to my office. And

when I sit down to my chair, I feel relaxed. And then when I

open up my computer, I feel relaxed. Or if you're just

searching on your phone, before you look at your phone, I'd be

like, when I turned my phone on, I feel relaxed. And when I pull

up my you know, if I pull up Corridor Careers, let's say, I

feel relaxed. And I imagined myself seeing the perfect job

for me. You know, you can do kinds of fun. That's the

creativity part comes in, I see the perfect job for me that fits

my skill set that offers the position that I'm interested in

that has the compensation and benefits I'm looking for. I

mean, you can just imagine those things. If it doesn't happen,

you know, it's no sweat, but like, you can feel the feeling

that you would feel you know if you can do the same thing. Like

I win the lottery to know you can imagine yourself, you can

imagine, you can just go back to that childlike sense of wonder

that you can, you can imagine whatever you want, your brain is

a free playground. So I would recommend that because if you

imagine yourself feeling relaxed, what you've done is

you've rehearsed your brain to see those triggers, and trigger

a relaxation response instead of an anxiety response. Because

we're automatically overhyped, right now, we're automatically

overwhelmed, and more prone to feel anxious or fight flight or

fight syndrome, you know, when when a stressor, and it's very

stressful to search for a job, or do a job interview or any of

those things, but you can use creative realization, to imagine

yourself being successful. In that job interview feeling

relaxed. You could imagine yourself having the right answer

to the question, you know, you can do all those things. And so

I that's a really, I've found it to be super helpful in calming

my mind before a big interview, or just before tackling

something that's stressful.

Yeah, yeah, a couple things. To piggyback off

that, I think one thing that came to my mind was, it's

almost, when you were going through talking about when you

you know, say open your computer, I feel relaxed, it's

almost just giving yourself little reminders all the time,

right, yeah. And so I've done this before, by just like, you

know, having a mark on my hand or something, or, you know, like

something, you know, writing a little note to myself, and like

a sticky note and having that on my mirror in my bathroom, or on

my computer, like, hey, just a reminder, like, you know, so I

think that was one thing that came to mind. The other thing

that came to mind, for me, it was just yeah, the heaviness of

just everything that's been going on, you know, we're almost

going on two years and a pandemic. And it's been rough on

everybody, and just just a reminder to, like, breathe, and

just know that, like, everything seems very heavy, right? But at

the end of the day, like, I don't think when we're all on

our deathbed, we're all gonna look back and like, think about

like, one specific day, like, wow, this was such a big deal in

my life. Like, you know, we're gonna, you know, think back

about, wow, that was a weird time through a pandemic, but I

don't think we'll necessarily focus on like, so I would

encourage people to kind of approach why, like, approach

life just with a little more, you know, freedom and like, less

anxiety. Like, it's not the end of end of the world. Right? Did

that make any sense at all?

Um, yeah. So you were talking earlier, we were

talking about how you use creative visualization for like,

just kind of regular old motivation. And so you want to

talk a little bit about that. So what you do in the morning?

Yeah, sure. So I, for about the last year and a

half, I have listened to the same 20 minute motivational

YouTube video from Earl Nightingale, who is old school,

if you look him up, he passed away like 30 years ago, but you

know, he did a lot of like tape recordings back in, like the

50s, which, which are still super relevant today. I mean, he

talks about some things that don't make any sense. Like, you

know, your, you know, income wise and stuff like that. But

one of the things he says in there is, begin to act as the

person you most want to become. So starting today, begin to act

as the person you most want to become, and you will eventually

become that person. Right. And I think there's a lot of tie ins,

whether just in your regular life, or in a job search, right?

Where if you begin to act or you can do this in a lot of

different ways, right? You can start to dress like the person

you most want to become. You can start to you know, comb your

hair like the person you come I don't know, like the take it as

you want to, but I think there's some good times with job

searching with that because we all have dreams and I posted

this to the corridor careers Instagram account yesterday.

That a dream is just a set of a goal, right? A dream can be

broken down into goals, which can be broken down into daily

habits and routines. So I gave the example in that post of the

dream is for a job seeker, maybe to come a human resource

manager. So that's the dream. So the goal, maybe for this year,

is to complete your PHR exam, which I, which is a human

resource exam that a lot of human resource managers have.

There's several of them, I think. And so what does that

daily habit that you could do today to start working towards

that goal and that dream? Well, you can start studying or you

can purchase a practice exam, right for your PHR exam. So I

think when you start to break it down into daily habits and

routines, what your big dreams are, and visual, like your long

term visualizations of what you want, you can, you know, break

it down into very simple daily habits and routines and just

moving each day just a little bit, like, will add up big time.

Over time.

Yeah, that's really good advice. Because it's okay.

It's okay to dream big, but unless you kind of craft that

dream into actions that you're going to take, it's, it's not

like it's gonna get dropped in your lap. So you're gonna have

to break it down. And actually, by breaking it down, you exert a

little more control over that potential. And you also set

yourself up for better success. And also, figuring out is that

dream actually what you want anymore? Because if you started

practicing for that exam and realized, huh, this is my dream

anymore, then then you you'll know, you'll know. And you'll be

able to shift and I don't know, I think that's a good. That's a

good plan.

Cool. Yeah. process, right. Kinda, yeah, you

gotta fall in love with the process. And like, you alluded

to, like, if you don't love the process, maybe it's not quite

the right. So

It's hard to remember sometimes when

especially living through times like these that, that there are

unlimited possibilities. Yes, there really are. And the

perfect place to play in that space is in your mind, like open

your mind to the potential that there are unlimited

possibilities and just start to explore those things. And that's

free. The only one stopping you is your own kind of habitual

mind games that you play with yourself. So just break those

down. And let's, let's let's let go of those this year.

Yeah. I love that. All right. Anything else?

Before we sign off? I think I have one more thing, actually.

Yeah, you go. Um, when you when you just said that, I think a

great way to kind of get creative and get out of, you

know, get out of your thoughts. But you know, your daily where

you're going through on a day to day basis is just to get

outside. Go, go get some fresh air, then I know it's snowing,

and it's been cold for right now. But get outside. You know,

get into nature. Like I think that's just a great way to kind

of reset. Yeah.

Yeah, you'll hear Some recurring themes on the

careers and coffee pod - that is one of them. Easier to follow

that advice in the summertime, but yeah, but you can get out

there and you know, you can also just go to the mall and walk

around.

Yes, absolutely. You got to take that time for

yourself. Yep. If you're going to be creative, I think

Alright, guys, well, hopefully this was

helpful. Try these tips today and and good luck.