For close to 20 years I kept a journal. I started writing entries when I was in college and wrote an entry almost every day. A few years ago, during an apartment renovation, the journals were lost and I’ve been mourning their loss ever since. My journals contained written snapshots of milestone moments in my life, including the day I graduated from college and graduate school, first and last days on jobs, my wedding day, and the day my children were born. But the journals were more than just a way to express what I was feeling on a given day. They were instructional as well. I frequently went back over journal entries, looking for clues to certain problems and reflecting on what I would do differently in the future. They helped me remember good times and not so good times and they gave me a great deal of insight and strength.
Job search certainly brings with it numerous challenges. Keeping a journal during a search can be a great way to record your thoughts and feelings on a given day. And like my journals, a job search journal can be reviewed to uncover what is and is not working in your search. It can also be shared in an effort to help others learn from your mistakes and bring hope and encouragement to others facing similar search issues.
I’ve finally decided to stop mourning the loss of my old journals and start keeping a new one. I just signed up for an account on LiveJournal and for right now my journal entries will be private as I sort out the current challenges in my life. But if I think one day that my entries can help others, I will make them public or who knows; maybe I will even turn them into a book.
How about you? How do you remember and learn from the past and apply it to your future? And how could you apply similar strategies to improve the quality of your job search now?