Whether a person has been unemployed for a period of time, or is going through the promised upheaval that comes with any change of job, it is all too easy to find yourself losing heart.

Each of us appears to have different levels of energy; and since that energy is necessary in order to feed the much-needed abstract called ‘optimism’, it can be seen that some will become discouraged faster than others.

This need not be the case, however.  It is essential in job seeking to maintain a high level of enthusiasm and confidence; and it is likely that we have better access to welcome assistance than we think.

It literally comes from within.

The concept of split-brain theory had been the subject of speculation for some time when it found final legitimacy with the awarding of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiognomy or Medicine.

Amusingly, since it was dealing with the divided right-and-left sides of the brain, the award itself was split between Roger Sperry and David Hubel/Torsten Wiesel — the former for his work on the cerebral hemispheres and the latter for discoveries in the visual system.

A Game of Two Halves

Put simplistically, the right hand side of the brain essentially concerns itself with matters such as recognition (of music, voices, etc.), spacial awareness and concrete thinking.  The more rambunctious partner deals with analyzing details; abstract thinking; speech; writing; mathematical calculations and so forth.  This makes it appear the more important, when in fact both are vital for balance.

Or to reduce it to even more fundamentals, the right brain seems to represent the artistic and intuitive, the left the more aggressively dominant and practical.

And what on earth has all this to do with job seeking?

Again, to put it at its most basic:  if you wake up on a jobless morning and decide there’s little point to getting up, then it’s your right brain that you need to be calling on.  It may not be as pushy as its brother but it is the one that’s in charge of your energy needs.  And, as has been demonstrated time and again, it is also far more open to suggestion.  It responds well to encouragement, so if you can focus on something that you find positive it will back that up and more.

You may not realise it, but you have probably often accessed it.  Did you ever go to sleep with a seemingly insurmountable problem on your mind, only to wake up with the guts of it sorted out?  That was the right hemisphere listening to you — and coming through when you needed it most.

Give a Little; Get Back a Lot

If you are heading in for that all-important interview, but are having one of those days when you ‘just can’t get motivated’, then once more that’s the time to put in a suggestion to the overlooked player in that partnership.  Again, recall how often you have cheered up and felt revitalized simply by looking out of the window and seeing a beautiful day.

With a little patience you can learn to access a burst of energy in the same way just by recalling a treasured piece of music, a favourite passage from a book, the face of a loved one.  The options are many and the choices are yours.  As pointed out, that right-hand side is enormously suggestible and is just waiting to be encouraged.

Unfortunately it is beyond the remit of this piece, given the necessary limitations of space, to go deeper into practical application; but it is well worth researching this fascinating subject and learning how you can adapt it to your own needs.  There is a wealth of information available.

This may seem unusual, it’s true; but in the search for a new or different job you should make use of every weapon in your armoury.

This is one that is already yours; and it is just waiting to be politely asked for help.

 

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Tags: interview, interview advice, interview tips, recruitment advice