Jun
11
Running to Move On
Photo credit: Tim Patterson / CC BY-SA 2.0
When challenges strike, it is good to do what you can to keep a sense of normalcy about whatever aspects of your life are not impacted by those challenges. One example would be your fitness regimen, and for most of you reading this blog, that would mean running. Keeping consistent in your approach, even using it as a temporary (but usually planned) escape from your challenges, can help you maintain needed balance and perspective, and give you control over at least one element of your life, when seemingly everything else may be spinning out of control.
Why this topic? Well, last Friday I was informed that my position was being eliminated. This came, of course, as a bit of a surprise and disappointment (though the constant reinforcement that the decision had nothing to do with performance was, at least, reassuring). And the head starts to spin, the nightmare scenarios begin to play out, and there comes the probably-most-difficult act of having to share the news with the loved ones. Somehow, the 5 year old son sharing his enthusiasm that daddy would be working from home for a bit (i.e., looking for a job) was not quite as uplifting as one might hope.
But there quickly comes the need to move on. Having read about such situations (though, to my good luck, never having experienced yet), I knew there were certain things I needed to set in motion. I call it the “positive, organized, and focused” approach. And running has a role to play in each portion of the approach.
Positive
It does little good to wonder what went wrong (except to contemplate lessons learned to build upon), nor to apportion any blame. I am not the type of guy to go all Clark W. Griswold “Jelly of the Month Club” in response to such a situation. But beyond keeping your cool, one needs to quickly look at as an opportunity to take the next step, and begin believing that there are better opportunities out there. Reacting positively requires possessing a sense of “urgency”, without letting it lead to “panic”.
So how does running help with this? When the need to resist panic arises, running can provide that escape, that positive energy, that sense of accomplishment that puts things back into perspective. It can give you that sense of control and confidence again, that “I can do it” belief. Whether done in a routine manner, to give a positive start to the day, or in a reaction to setbacks, it’s the recalibration you need to get back at the search process with vigor.
Organized
Effectively searching for a new job with minimal stress requires good organizational skills. There are contact lists, job descriptions, resumés, cover letters, responses, phone calls scheduled, coffee with a former colleague, etc. If you don’t have the tools and rigor to coordinate all of this, the stress will distract you from your mission. In my case, I am fortunate to be a GTD addict so organizing comes naturally, but I faced having to live without Microsoft Outlook and the various mechanisms I had devised to work with it for the first time. So the first step was to set up Gmail and Remember the Milk and find all the add-ins needed to allow me to keep my life in sync across my wife’s Mac and my Blackberry, and then to devise the tracking tools to help me organize where I have sent or will send resumés, what versions, etc.
As far as running, being organized means sticking to the plan. A big part of keeping yourself “work-ready” is maintaining your routines. Thus, as easy as it might be to, say, do my runs in the mid-morning, the reality is that my life and work style are built around the predawn (and occasional lunch, and even rarer late-night) run. I will continue to get up at 4:00 if I need to run 10 miles. I will continue to do my long run on early Saturday morning. And I will run at lunch to recharge on the days I normally run at lunch and strength-train (Tuesday), schedule permitting.
Furthermore, I will not add extra running, or use running as a regular escape mechanism. Shortly after I shared the news, a friend and productivity coach from Twitter, Claudine Motto (you should follow her), sent me a note reminding me to “definitely keep running”. I responded that at that moment, all I wanted to do was run – but I had already run in the predawn, so I wouldn’t. Instead, I stayed…
Focused
Finding a job is a job, and needs to be treated as such. My running needs to stay as compact as usual. Appointments need to be assessed for whether they really provide the value for the time. And, unfortunately, that trip to the specialty running shoe store I had planned for last Friday, to start experimenting with new shoes, has to be postponed. Maintaining the budget is part of the focus too, and my existing shoes only have around 300 miles on them (and aren’t causing me grief).
The running needs to stay focused on the running, not a chance for the mind to wander through the what-ifs (unless that is, in fact, the purpose of that day’s run).
So I face the near-term future with some confidence, at least in knowing that I have put the systems, processes, and attitudes in place to do what I can to find a new position. Let’s hope that others agree with what Olivier Blanchard states on The BrandBuilder blog – that runners make great employees (hat tip to Brian Lausch). And if you happen to learn of anyone looking for an experienced commercial executive with innovative approaches to sales and marketing, I’d love if you could keep me in mind.
