Tips for Unemployment

Life Advice

Too many unemployed people just sit at home and apply to jobs.  This often leads to boredom, depression, decay of skills, and reduced mental health.  Instead of just applying and waiting, they should also be spending time developing skills or life experience.  What’s the difference between working on something and not getting paid, and sitting at home passing time and not getting paid?  In one situation, you’re in a position to develop skills and/or place to meet people who might hire you; in the other, you’re not developing skills, and your chances of meeting an employer or someone who knows an employer is close to 0%.

Fulfill a passion or hobby you’ve always had, browse Craigslist for small jobs, work for TaskRabbit or Mechanical Turk, or walk around outside in public places and whenever you see someone who needs help, GO HELP! 1. you’ll feel great, 2. you’ll be doing good work, 3. you might get recognized and hired by people who see that you’re able to get things done for other people.

Lately, there has been an over-emphasis on how much you are paid for what you’re doing, and we have forgotten the importance and value that just doing something has: it trains skills that will become useful later, and if the skill itself isn’t useful later, the skill of training will be.  Stay in the training, in the learning, mindset, and you will be far better equipped to adapt than other people.  The idea that you would work for someone else without being paid is not valued enough. Doing so keeps you sharp so that you’re not out of practice when interviews or full-time jobs begin.

Wallowing in misery helps no-one, not even yourself.

Next, read: What is Skill, Talent, Potential, Smart, and Intelligence?

Resources

To find out when those posts, and other life education writing, are released, subscribe on the side! Follow on Twitter, on Facebook, on Google+, on Tumblr.

How to Say No and Goodbye

Social Skills

There are two ways, without a reason, with a reason.

Saying no without a reason in some cases is the easiest method: you just say no and the conversation moves on.  However, if people ask for a reason, it is more difficult, but even then you can say “you don’t want to say” and if they try to give you a hard time about it, step out of the situation and realize that this is just a short term event (see timescales) and it will pass and life will move on.

Saying no with a reason is generally the better way to handle the situation, if the reason is something that can be shared and you’re OK with sharing it.  It is the better way because it makes the “no” feel less like a rejection and more like a factor of bad timing.  If you don’t feel comfortable sharing the reason, or you can’t share it, then say that and people will understand–if they don’t understand and instead give you a hard time about it, either they’re joking or their serious, and either way see timescales above.

These same rules apply to How to say Goodbye: “I’m going to go now, bye!” Works fine.  It clearly communicates that you’re leaving, so that you can leave: problem solved.  “I have to go _____” If you want to give a reason.

This post is part of AttemptedLiving’s Conversation Resources, a collection of articles on conversation.

To find out when more Life Education Curriculum is released, subscribe on the side! Follow on Twitter, on Facebook, on Google+, on Tumblr.  Please share your comments to this post below.

When You’re Not Invited / 4 Kinds of Invitations

Social Skills

Invitations: you can get them because 1. it is a public event, 2. it is polite to include you since you are associated with the group or organization in question, 3. someone is interested in getting to know you better,  4. you have friends who want you there and you want to be there with friends.

You start off from one end and slowly get the other end.

To find out when those posts, and other life education writing, are released, subscribe on the side! Follow on Twitter, on Facebook, on Google+, on Tumblr.