We all have bad days, or bad experiences. That’s part of life. It’s really important that we don’t linger on the bad stuff and stay focused on your goal, your career objective! If your pessimism starts to define you, you are going to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. The right mindset to take is to ensure you reflect on what happened, deal with your feelings, and take action to move on. You are capable of great and wonderful things, you just need to put your mind to it! How to do it As a quick fix, and in relation to a specific event, positive thinking works wonders.

• Have a positive thinking mantra like “whether you think you can or can’t, you’re right, and guess what, you can”.
• Write down negative thoughts – it can have the same effect as airing a grievance.
• Say stop. Take a deep breath. Move on to the next thing you can do:
  • To resolve the situation, or
  • Be productive on something else, i.e. something to do with your job search/career objective, or something else that brings value, happiness or comfort in your life, e.g. going for a walk, working out/playing sport, cooking a meal, meeting or speaking with a friend or loved one, treating yourself to something nice (if inexpensive).

Commit to Thinking If you find you berate yourself continually when something goes wrong, commit to thinking about whatever it is at a specific time e.g. “I’ll give myself a hard time over that conversation whilst I make dinner and then forget about it”. Recognize your thought process, but the critical bit is to move on from it. Disputing a negative thought is a good place to start:

• Find the evidence – what are the facts to back up my negative belief?
• What are the alternatives to this belief?
• How else might I interpret the situation?
• What are the implications of this belief?
• What impact will this belief have on me?
• What is the usefulness of this belief?
• Is the impact positive or negative?
• How does this belief serve me?

Feeling better? Great, you can do it!

Extra reading How to stay positive:

• 11 smart habits

• 10 forgotten truths to help you get through hard times