Journaling for your Dream Job
Posted on March 20, 2013 by Jayde Gilmore, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.
How to use your journal to help you get the perfect job!
I remember when I asked for my first journal – I had just read Little Women, and it seemed like all of the elegant, intelligent women in that book kept journals, and if I wanted to be elegant and intelligent I would too! My parents got me a little journal, a little bigger than a pack of playing cards with tiny dated spaces to write in – and it was supposed to cover 5 years! I ended up writing “Dull Day!” across many of the spaces, and finally gave up journal writing as old fashioned and “stupid” (I was all of 10 years old, after all).
Years later, a friend gave me a selection of Anais Nin’s journals, and I was struck by how beautifully she could express her experiences and emotions. Ever since then I’ve thought of journaling as an excellent way to preserve my life for my descendants. At this point I’ve kept a journal off and on for most of my adult life.
In the last few years, I’ve been introduced to the idea of journal writing to accomplish something, and I’ve experimented a fair bit with it. In it’s simplest form, you write what is on your mind and periodically go back and reflect on what you said back when and how you feel about it now.
I’m also a fan of using your journal to help you focus on what you want to increase in your life. Keep your purpose in mind as you write, and periodically go back and reflect on what you’ve written. For your job search and career change, you may want to reflect weekly or more often. If you have a coach, you may want to keep a separate journal that you review with your coach.
Here are some prompts:
1. Reflect on how you have used your strengths to help you build confidence and self esteem.
2. If you’re unemployed and looking for a new job, write about what your efforts to find the perfect job have been.
3. Write about the new skills you’ve learned.
4. Write about what gives you joy, that you could conceive of doing for a job/career.
Do try and focus on the positives – I could fill books talking about all of the bad things about my former jobs, but that keeps my focus on the old job, and on what’s terrible about it. Focusing on what I’m good at, and where I want to go with it, keeps the positive in mind and helps keep me focused on my goals.
What will you write about in your journal?
