Job Search Pain and Paper Cuts

This morning I was feeling my index finger where I had a paper cut.

Ah… the infamous paper cut. We’ve all had them. I think my worst might have been a cardboard cut. Yuck.

Anyway, I was rubbing my index finger… you know when you get a paper cut that has healed over, but there’s still a flap of skin there?

Only, this morning, it wasn’t there. In fact, I haven’t had a paper cut for… maybe years. I was feeling for something that had hurt quite a bit (okay, I’m a wimp)… but it has since completely healed over. No pain, not even any indication that there had been harm.

And while I was realizing I was trying to feel for something that has long passed, I thought about YOU. I thought about the immense pain of a job search. The massive inconvenience. The embarrassment, and the humility required to do some of the things a job seeker has to do.

I would guess most people are out of their comfort zone when they are in a job search. Networking for fun, when you have a job, is one thing. Networking out of complete desperation and fear is quite another. Actually, almost everything you do out of desperation and fear is not fun.

Pain. Damage. Hurt.

I know my paper cut is a pretty weak example of pain. But even my emergency gall bladder surgery, or my broken ankle (which probably caused  the most pain I’ve ever been in)… all of those things sucked. And here I am, without pain in my gut, with a functioning ankle that doesn’t hurt nearly as much as it did before… healed. The pain has passed and I’m relatively whole.

I am here to tell you, from the other side of job loss, that your pain will one day be gone. The humiliation, the fear, it will be gone. It will not only be a memory, it will be a faint memory. And while you fret about it every minute of every day, in the future you’ll go days where you don’t even think about it.

You will be whole and healed.

You might not be able to see it from where you are sitting now, but trust me, it will happen.

Let me know how I can help.