How Do You Keep Going When You’re Running Out of Steam?

I want to say that I’m feeling perky and spunky and plucky and lots of other cheery adjectives today after taking a few days off to gaze at the ocean.  I’m not.  I thought by now I’d have a job.  I don’t.  Just back from a short vacation, it feels like all I have to look forward to now is my ongoing endless search for work.  Nothing’s changed.

Please don’t tell me I’m feeling sorry for myself.  I’m just writing honestly about how I feel at this moment.

So what can I do – what can any of us long-term unemployed people do – when we feel like we’re running out of the considerable energy we need for this major effort, this search for a good job?  Especially when you’ve been at it for a year and a half, like I have, how do you maintain your enthusiasm for the task when the results are always the same – no job offers?

I don’t want to be negative, but it’s hard to look at things any other way sometimes.

Really, I’m struggling right now to keep my own spirits up, never mind anyone else’s.  If you’re in the same boat as me and are reading this, tell me what you do when you start to feel like you’re banging your head against a wall, that no matter what you do, nothing seems to make any difference.

OK, I've decided that I'm not going to finish writing this without forcing myself to try a few things right now that, who knows, might help.  Things like:

• Going to LinkedIn and making some new connections
• Contacting someone in the field I’d like to enter and letting them know that I’m looking for a position
• Signing up for a workshop to help me with my job search and/or job interview skills
• Finding a new job site online and checking it out
• Following up on at least one job I’ve applied to but haven’t heard back about
• Applying for a job that’s not ideal but for which I think I have a decent shot

Thinking about things like this – steps I can take to help myself – makes me realize that, in order to avoid that hopeless feeling, I’ve got to feel that I have some control over this situation, that there are actions I can take that may change things.  There’s no question that, if I do nothing, nothing can change.  On the other hand, if I do something, then at least there’s the possibility that something might happen and I’ll get a job.

So I’ll get busy on the half dozen things I thought of that may lead to a new job.  They haven't before, but they might now.  What do you do when you’re having trouble pushing yourself to keep going?  Let me know.