3 Ways to Bring Joy to Your Job Search

So, you’re looking for a job. Maybe you’re unemployed. Maybe you’re employed, but not exactly where you want to be.

Whatever the case, you’ve probably been spending loads of time browsing through Idealist, sending off resumes, writing cover letters, and hustling to get yourself out there.

It’s not a secret that it can be a grueling, exhausting process. But here’s the part that may not be as obvious—if you’re constantly feeling exhausted and overextended by your job search, you are actually sabotaging your own efforts.

While it might seem like the shiny resume and cover letter are the only things that matter in achieving your goal, there’s actually a lot more depth to the process. Your energy throughout the job search process—how you’re feeling and the state of your mind and body—play a HUGE part in how your resume and cover letter will land for employers.

If you want to work for an organization that values the health and happiness of its employees just as much as their founding mission, then the value has to start with YOU. How are you treating yourself in this process? What energy are you bringing to it?

Here are three tips for bringing joy to your job search, with the intention of feeling more energized and empowered in the process, as well as helping you find the right match:

1. Create short job search intervals in your calendar.

If you’re dedicating full days or large time chunks to focus on job searching, here’s a news flash: you are likely to burn out. Your brain can only take a certain amount of focused time before it drifts away.

Pushing yourself to do 8, 6, even 2 hours at once can be a lot. Try planning out 30-minute intervals throughout the week. Thirty minutes gives you a solid time chunk to achieve a couple of tasks. Do even just one of these a day, and you’ll be surprised at how much you can accomplish in a week!

2. Take dance breaks.

Whether or not you think you can dance, please try this out. Dancing has been proven to create new neural pathways in our brains. Even a minute or two of dancing and moving your body and can do wonders to revive your energy and help you refocus on the task at hand.

For a bonus: Choose songs that really pump you up and highlight your value! (May I suggest Fifth Harmony’s “Worth It?” or “Yes” from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack?) If you need a bit more guidance or structure for your dance breaks, check out the Dance Shuffle Solution.

3. Have more fun in your personal life.

Just because you’re unemployed or dissatisfied with your current job situation doesn’t mean you don’t deserve to have fun and experience joy and pleasure in your life.

Let me repeat that in a different way: the state of your employment does not equate to your personal value and deservingness to experience life. If you’re beating yourself up and starving yourself of fun until you find a job, you’re once again sabotaging the efforts.

Give yourself a week to experiment—take a break from the job search and go to a dance club. Commit random acts of kindness just to see someone smile. Learn from children. Have inspiring conversations with elders. Do what lights you up. The results of this process can be highly transformative—I know from experience.

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About the Author | Jess Grippo is a dancer, writer, TEDx speaker, and creativity coach based in Brooklyn NY. Whether she’s facilitating a dance class or guiding you through a coaching session, she’s really just helping you get out of your own way so that creativity can flow freely through you. Join her Creative Fridays community for a weekly nudge (via email) for your creative soul. You can also find her on Facebook at Jess Grippo Dances and Jess Grippo on Instagram.