Are you stressed out enough yet? Losing a job is one of the top life stressors we can go through in life. Holmes & Rahe have designed a stress test to help you see how “close to the edge” we are.  When we go through a job shift many of the other factors are also present, so stress climbs!  What is your stress level?

Now that you know your stress level is through the roof, how will you cope with it? That’s right, I said COPE with it.  Chances are you aren’t going to resolve the stress completely until life takes on its “next new normal.”  Coping is how you will deal with stress until that happens. Since experts agree that coping is a process rather than an event, your coping strategy may alternate between several coping activities in order to for you to get by.

The Cleveland Clinic has come good online resources to help people cope with stress. Some common coping mechanisms they recommend include:

• Lowering your expectations
• Asking others to help or assist you
• Taking responsibility for the situation
• Engaging in problem solving
• Maintaining emotionally supportive relationships
• Maintaining emotional composure or, alternatively, expressing distressing emotions
• Challenging previously held beliefs that are no longer adaptive
• Directly attempting to change the source of stress
• Distancing yourself from the source of stress
• Viewing the problem through a religious perspective

Over the years I have picked up a few tips for dealing with stress as well.  Here’s what I recommend:

1. Focus on your own health.  Eat right. Get enough sleep.  Exercise. Play. Laugh.
2. Do something proactive. Don’t sit around waiting for the phone to ring.  Get out of the house and do something – volunteer, go to networking events, ANYTHING!  But do something!
3. Have a plan and follow it. If you don’t have a plan (complete with measurable goals and focusing on results) how will you track your progress? If the only measure of your job search success is whether or not you get a job, you will be discouraged MOST of your job search.
4. Find ways to stay positive.  It’s  battle some days, I know.  But staying positive will help you not only endure the trip, but enjoy it as well!

What action will you take TODAY to cope with the stress of your job search?

30 Day Blogging Challenge – day 5.  Tomorrow’s post: “Writing A Blog To Promote Your Personal Brand”