If you’re fed up to the point that you want to quit your job, chances are you feel like your back is against the wall.
You could probably use a couple of extra tools in your toolbox right about now.
Lucky for you, I’m about to give you some.
You see, no one likes to be backed into a corner. No one likes to be at a disadvantage. And with these ninja tricks you don’t have to be.
It’s really a matter of what’s going on in your head, never letting them see you sweat, and having an amazing poker face. Now, I’m not really one for playing games. But there’s a difference between games and negotiation or being so honest that you hurt yourself and your chances of getting what you want, scratch that – what you need in your career.
Your career is one of the most important areas of your life where you need to be in control and need to have strategy and a plan. Letting your emotions overtake things or letting someone else be in the driver’s seat is a recipe for ending up where you don’t want to be.
Now is the time to start masterminding your own career, no matter how much of a feeler you are – and believe me, I get it, because I am a feeler too. But it’s precisely because you feel that you need to end up in a place that feels good in your career. You’re not a robot that doesn’t care about what you have to do to earn a living. To you it matters.
So learning to take control with your masterful personal and interpersonal skills (and that’s really what these are) will give you more power than you can imagine.
The Hacks
1. Fake Confidence: You might have the boss from hell who demoralizes you every chance he gets, but you don’t have to carry that baggage with you into the rest of the world. Even while you recover from that blow, fake confidence until you feel it in every interaction you have from informational interviews, emails with potential employers, real interviews, and even during the soul searching process of figuring out what you want to do next. Even if you’ve had some bad experiences, faking confidence until you can learn it or regain it will do wonders for how far you can go in your career. Hack: Assume everyone already likes you. (Why wouldn’t they???)
2. Connect With People: Even if you’re naturally an introvert or shy (not the same thing), you can still connect with others. Introverts, Extroverts, and shy people all connect with others differently and on different scales. However you do it though, remember, you can’t and won’t get ahead in your career alone. No matter what you’re trying to do, you will need help from other people, whether it’s in the form of connections, referrals, moral support, or as clients, partners or part of your network. Closing yourself off when you’re feeling bad is a mistake. Now, more than ever you should be branching out and connecting with people you already trust and finding new people you can trust. Hack: Smile and look people in the eyes. Remember names by repeating them one or twice throughout the conversation, ask for a small favor which increases your chances that they will do something bigger for you later on.
3. Like Yourself: This goes hand-in-hand with faking confidence. It’s actually a building block for creating real confidence. When you like yourself and start to see the qualities that make you incredible (and they are there!) you will begin to realize that people are missing out by not knowing you. That knowledge doesn’t have to make you arrogant. But once you begin to like yourself, you’ll realize you’re too good for your crappy situation and it really is time to quit your job. Hack: Start practicing positive self-talk.
4. Be Genuinely Interested In Other People: We’re all so focused on what we’re feeling and thinking most of the time (especially when we feel under attack, like you probably do right now at work.) But reading other people’s body language you can gain a lot of additional information (as you probably already know). Don’t be afraid to keep that information handy, and also be interested in other people – even interviewers or new bosses – because people love to talk about themselves. Hack: Tune in, be interested and you will be interesting to other people because of how much people love to feel loved by others. People don’t remember what you say as much as how you make them feel.
5. Fear and Exhilaration: They feel very similar. You might be afraid of going out on stage to give a live speech, but it’s also exhilarating. Your heart beats, your palms are sweaty, your stomach lurches, you feel a bit sick. . . so the next time you’re scared of something you’ve made up your mind to do anyway, tell yourself it’s exhilaration instead. Your body won’t know the difference.
Quit Your Job
Before, you might have lacked confidence, been tempted to withdraw into yourself, felt angry or even started disliking yourself, felt yourself becoming jaded about others and started to become fearful about the world around you.
I hope that these psychological hacks will not only give you the edge you need when it comes time to quit your job, but also to see the importance of creating a strategy and a strong stance from which to undertake your job change.
Quitting your job and finding a new, awesome one doesn’t happen when you feel weak and beaten.
It happens when you can take control and grab what you want in life.
I’m here to help you do just that, and I hope these ideas helped you today.