Career Cycles
Thermostat or thermometer: Which are you?
Published: Mar 21, 2007
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High and low spirits follow each other during a job search almost as regularly as the tides. Here's a question to ask yourself: Are you a thermostat or a thermometer? That is, are you a controlling influence, such as a thermostat, or do you tend to go up and down like a thermometer, depending on what happens during your daily job search?
We all tend to function as either one or the other. One tells about the conditions surrounding it while the other makes a difference in those conditions in the environment where it's located. What most of us would like to be is a thermostat — someone who controls the temperature in our situation. Your family and friends welcome someone who is under control, who doesn't succumb to the stress, who's steady and caring and peaceful. Those thermostat people are rare — and valuable.
About 20 percent of Americans today have been at their current jobs for less than a year. Downsizing and reorganization, more overtime and increased competition are contributing to a workforce seemingly unable to cope with the pressures of the modern job. Add to that the complex task of attempting to balance work or job-search issues with the evermore chaotic demands of family and simple survival, and it is clear that in too many ways we are thermometers and not thermostats.
Courage can make a thermometer person into a thermostat — one who has the inner power to set a new direction. Perhaps, the greatest challenge that you will ever face in a job search is developing the courage that brings you an unshakable self-confidence. Fortunately, the three habits of courage can be learned and developed — it just takes practice.
Habit 1: Perhaps, the most important kind of courage is the courage to begin, to launch, to step out in faith. The future belongs to the risk takers, not the security seekers. Life is perverse in the sense that the more you seek security, the less you have. But the more you seek opportunity, the more likely you will achieve the security you desire. One way to get the courage to become a thermostat, from which everything else flows, is to plan and prepare thoroughly in advance. Set clear goals and objectives, and then gather information. Read and research your chosen field of work. Write out detailed plans and then take the first step.
Habit 2: Develop the courage to endure, to persist, to stay at it once you have begun, no matter what. Persistence is a form of courageous patience, and it is one of the rarest forms of courage. Courageous patience is having the ability to stand firm after you have begun and before you get any feedback or results from your actions. Planning your work and working your plan and persisting, even in the face of disappointment and unexpected short-term setbacks, is not only a form of courage, but it also builds and develops the courage within you.
Habit 3: The last type of courage is the courage to conquer worry — a form of negative goal-setting. Worry is a sustained form of fear caused by indecision. Have the resolve to accept the worst, should it occur, and then think of everything that you could possibly do to make sure that the worse does not occur. Once you have resolved to accept the worst, you will be calm and capable of thinking productive thoughts.
Which are you, a thermometer or thermostat? Most of us are thermostats most of the time, especially as we get older, with only the occasional blowout. The difference is not whether or not we get frustrated. People who are calm, in charge of themselves and the situation get frustrated and annoyed with today's impersonal hiring practices. But they control their frustration; they don't let it get the best of them. They take charge of their job search. They're able to think clearly and see the consequences of their actions. There are thousands, perhaps millions, who live blighted, crippled lives because they let their frustration and yes, sometimes, their anger, get the best of them.
The head of education at a California prison used to make a speech he called "Thirty Seconds" in which he would point out that a sizeable percentage of today's prison population wouldn't be there if they'd waited 30 seconds to think over the act they were contemplating.
And it seems the mature person doesn't even need the 30 seconds. He or she sees clearly what his or her anger can lead to and he or she lets it pass without committing the deed. These people don't say the words that spring into their minds or perform the acts that sudden anger dictates.
Thermostat or thermometer? Does your temper rise and fall with the conditions of your job search, or do you keep your thermostat set at a reasonable and intelligent level?
Our research studies indicate that job seekers who are thermostats significantly expedite their job search versus people who are thermometers. Do you need any other reason as to why you need to become a thermostat?
Joe Hodowanes is a career strategy adviser in Tampa. For questions, call Joe at 813-264-9172 or visit www.jmwanes.com.
