Stay positive and on routine

This morning I was following up with several friends and contacts who I reached out to late last week. My goal of these follow-ups is to keep top-of-mind of friends as if to say "hey, I'm here...don't forget about me." The goal is NEVER to be a pest, but to simply keep oneself visible as employed contacts deal with their hectic days and always growing email in-boxes.

One of my emails this morning was to a friend who works at a potential employer that has a great CRM opportunity. My contact knows the internal recruiter for this job...so it's important to stay visible and connected. The follow up email did it's trick and I confirmed that my resume is now in front of the right people. Thanks!

However, out of this correspondence came another job search "nugget" of advice. My friend has always had a great sense of balance and presence both physically and mentally. It's relaxing just be be around him. In his response back to me he closed his email with a piece of wisdom spiritual masters typically provide during daily contemplative prayer.

"Stay positive and on routine."

Being laid off displaces all of us from the basic daily routine of working....getting up in the morning, working out, going into work, driving home, having dinner and spending time with the family...and the cycle starts again the next day. I thinking maintaining the same routine reduces the shock of being laid off and enables stronger focus on the goal of finding the right next job. It also helps keep a positive outlook when the "we found another more qualified candidate" emails and phone calls come in.

Great advice.