How to Beat Graduate Unemployment Part 2
By Derek Colin Howard
I really believe that I can offer a solution to beat unemployment for graduates, those with other higher education qualifications, and for other jobless youths. The same solution would also apply to those beyond the 16 to 24 age group, but remain young minded!
In this article, I expand my thoughts and suggestions to components of yourself and your life over which you should already have control. Again they are simply and straight forward, but no less valid for that. What is NOT valid is you making excuses to avoid taking any necessary changes!
I strongly believe that your present situation, and the means of escaping from it, are heavily influenced by your physical and mental health. Both are inter-linked, and will directly affect your approach to your problems and their resolution.
Your Well-being.
a) Lifestyle.
b) Health.
c) Mental health.
These three sub-titles are very much inter-related.
They will all help to avoid, should you be at all susceptible, the really terrible consequences of even approaching the depths of a real depression.
It is essential that you look after yourself.
By that it is meant that you must look after both your mind and your body, and keep both in a healthy state. That does not mean that you have to be able to run a mile in under 4 minutes (that surely dates ME), or that you have to become a champion chess player. The common sense and practical approach is all that is required.
It is absolutely vital that you take every step available to avoid the state of full depression. This is something that not only will go greatly against the possibilities of you finding employment now, but studies prove that those having suffered true depression are more susceptible to recurring episodes throughout their lives.
a) Lifestyle:
The overall package that you present to a prospective employer, either in the form of the CV and application form, or (hopefully) with a personal interview is only part of the picture.Your attitude and actions within the period of unemployment will almost certainly be taken as making up, or displaying the qualities and strength of your character.
You do need to have a structure to your life.
This does not have to be rigid and inflexible but to make any sense, that structure should be something that can be considered the basis of your lifestyle, and it should be broadly in line with the rest of the world.
There is not much point in looking for work, or even contemplating looking for work, when your lifestyle means languishing in bed until mid-morning, loafing about all day and then watching television, or amusing yourself on the Internet until the early hours of the morning.
The world that you are applying to join does not work like that.
Should you feel that you want, or deserve, a lifestyle different from most other people then, in almost all circumstances, you are first going to have to make a great success in a more normal career. That almost always translates into having made sufficient money to go your own way!
The exception might well be a shortcut, as outlined under SFM (the Six Figure Mentors) below!
I would suggest that your structured lifestyle should broadly fall in lines of that of somebody in full-time employment.
It would mean:
Getting up at a reasonable hour, allowing you time to have a breakfast and travel an average distance to a workplace (say, three-quarters of an hour).
Taking some sort of break around lunchtime, with either a meal or snack according to your requirements.
Stopping work in the evening around five thirty, allowing the same travel period before an evening meal.
A couple of hours in another activity.
To bed at a reasonable hour; at least reasonable enough to re-start the same cycle the next day, in a good physical and mental state to allow you to work at full capacity.
This sort of schedule will not only keep you in a rhythm suitable for when you do find work, but also shows respect to the others living in the same household.
As for most others in developed areas of the world, the week-ends will afford you the possibility of a change in this routine.
b) Health:
Some sort of physical activity should be considered as essential. If you are not already doing some sort of training for a sport, then a daily physical activity would be highly beneficial.
It is very important to keep physically fit, both for your bodily health but also as an aid to mental health.
Any employer will also appreciate a modicum of health to ensure your ability to sustain good attendance!
A daily routine, at least during the working week, of a fairly brisk walk would be a good enough to keep a modicum of bodily health. That is to say, a walk and not a stroll!
Whilst it is undoubtedly more agreeable in a park, forest or other open area, living in a town or city is not an excuse! No more so than rain! Enjoyment can be gained from observing other people's front gardens, birds in street trees, changes in shop displays etc. And DIY shops or Garden centres will have water-proof rain wear for just a couple of pounds or so.
If there is no dog in your own household, you might want to consider offering to walk a neighbour's dog for them. Dogs are almost always expressively happy, and some of this mood will rub off onto you!
Perhaps you could routinely use the travel time allowances built into your daily schedule as suggested under "Lifestyle" above. That is about 1.5 hours total per working day.
Almost everybody will admit to enjoying walking as not only a way of keeping fit, but also as a period which "clears the mind," for a period from some of life's difficulties, and gives mental freedom to look at problems and objectives in a different light.
Not only that, you might actually come to enjoy it! To treasure the moments! Just like millions of others!
People who are physically active show lower levels of anxiety, depression and stress! It will also help you to sleep at night.
c) Mental Health:
Should you feel that you are becoming more and more downhearted, and suspect that you are at, or approaching a depressive state, you should immediately seek help.
Reading this, or any other "self-help" type of article will be totally insufficient. You really do need to speak to somebody. The most likely reasonable starting point is your own doctor. If you feel that you cannot, or do not want to disclose your problems to him, or her, then it is perhaps time that you changed your general practitioner!
Happily, nowadays there is no stigma to seeking help for "mental problems."
There are numerous examples in the public eye; show-biz stars and sports personalities who have openly sought professional help.
It is very easy to detect when you have a broken arm or leg, and then to know what action has to be taken to remedy it. It is far more difficult to recognise the on-start and decline into a poor state of mind, and even more difficult to find a solution!
It is much more sensible to take early, professional advice!
No matter how great or limited is one's medical knowledge it is inescapable that a healthy mind and a healthy body are inter-dependent.
Every scientific report, whether emanating from government departments, or from medical or scientific bodies, are all finding more and more strongly the evidence of the relationship between what we eat, our physical health and our mental health.
In these senses, a reasonable routine in each is good!
Not with standing all of the above, your general " Well-being" will be GREATLY enhanced if you take some positive action towards changing your current situation.
There is one sure way to do this. MAKE your own changes!
Take your own life, into YOUR OWN hands!
Look at the OPPORTUNITYto becoming your own employer!
Become an ENTREPRENEUR. Mould your own skills and qualifications to form your own life, and life-style!
Take a calm, serious look at this opportunity offered below!
There is another Article in this mini-series:-
Part 3: http://EzineArticles.com/6846307
Derek Howard took his first steps into working from home with an Internet business at http://www.Meetderekhoward.com
There, you also can immediately start learning about Internet Marketing, and even start the training straight away with free videos. All with a proven system, and a very welcoming, and helpful support community.
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