How to Manage Anxiety Before a Job Interview

You’ve been sending out resumes left and right, applying for jobs in your sleep, and now you finally got the call and have a job interview set up. After lining up the interview, you might discover that you have a lot of emotions, including anxiety. Perhaps you’ve been looking for a job for a while and have started to feel a little desperate to return to the workforce.

Of course, you know that to perform your best in the interview you’ll want to manage your emotions.

Here are a few ways to manage your anxiety before the interview.

Recognize how you feel. Don’t bother denying how you’re feeling about the interview. Your emotions are not right or wrong. If you’re feeling anxious, nervous, or worried it’s necessary to acknowledge how you’re feeling so you can implement some strategies to better manage your anxiety.

   

Discuss how you feel with a friend. Take some time to share your feelings with a friend, spouse, or partner. It can help to manage your feelings simply by acknowledging them to another person. When we hold our emotions in or try to bury them, they can feel more oppressive and difficult to handle.

Get some good sleep. Of course, you want to get good sleep before your interview. Don’t stay up late watching television, perhaps take a hot shower or bath, and read for awhile to help you relax.

Avoid alcohol. Do not drink the night before your interview. You might think it will help you relax and fall asleep, but alcohol actually impairs your ability to fall into a deep sleep. And it should go without saying that you don’t want to drink in the hours before your interview.

Meditate and self-talk. Take a few minutes to meditate the day of your interview and develop some phrases for positive self-talk, such as “I have the skills necessary to do this job well” or “I will perform well in this interview.”

Breathe. When we’re feeling anxious, we can sometimes neglect to breathe properly, and this can increase our feelings of anxiety. So, take some time and breathe deeply, while repeating your positive self-talk phrases and you’ll do just fine in your interview.

6 Practices That Will Make You More Successful Tomorrow

We all want to be successful in our lives and in our careers but sometimes we let the busyness of our personal and work lives interfere with taking care of ourselves and doing the things we need to do.

It can be easy to get off track and find ourselves filled with anxiety while we struggle to meet deadlines and prioritize competing demands.

Apply the following 6 practices to your day today and you'll have a better day tomorrow.

1. Turn off the social media. Avoid your Facebook, twitter, and Instagram accounts. These take time away from the important things and we often find ourselves unfavorably comparing our lives or circumstances with others we barely know.

2. Forget multi-tasking. Focus on only one thing and work at it until you complete it. Attempting to multi-task is a distraction and might even lead to taking a look at those social media accounts we suggested turning off.

3. Replace negative self-talk. When you're stressed out or struggling with work you can find yourself stuck in a rut of negative self-talk. You're not good at this. It will never get done. No one will like this. The self-talk can be ruthless. It's important to recognize this and replace the self-talk in your mind with positive affirmations: I've got this. I'm good enough. I'm brave and capable.

4. Take a walk outside and breathe. Get outside into the fresh air, go for a walk, and focus on your breathing. You'll feel better, more relaxed, less stressed, and ready to take on the world.

5. Eat a healthy and energizing meal. Be sure to get at least one meal in every day that consists of healthy food that will make your body feel strong and provide the energy you need.

6. Sleep. You need good and adequate sleep to be at your best. Make sure you get 7-8 hours in order to be rested and focused to start your day well.

5 Ways to Overcome Fear, Doubts, and Uncertainty in Your Career

Fear is often one of the strongest emotions we experience when it comes to taking on new challenges and tasks in a career. Sometimes we allow doubt to creep into our minds and we tell ourselves that we have no business expecting success and we feel like a fraud when we get that promotion.

This is common to many people and there are ways to deal with these thoughts and feelings.

Try these five ways to overcome fear, doubt, and uncertainty in your career:

1. Meditate. Take 5 to 10 minutes when you start your day to practice meditation. This calming practice will help set your fears and anxieties to rest and also allow you to fill your mind with some positive words if you add a simple phrase to meditate on, such as "I am grateful for each new opportunity."

2. Identify strengths and successes. Write down three of your strengths, along with three significant successes you've had in your life. Post this somewhere you can view it several times throughout the day. Drawing attention to your strengths and successes will help remind you that you are capable and have the skills necessary to be a success.

3. Practice positive self-talk. Learn to identify when you are telling yourself negative thoughts or are filled with fear and doubt. Take a moment to breath carefully and replace your thoughts with something true and inspiring. This is where identifying your strengths and successes can come in handy. Replace your doubts by reminding yourself of the ways you excel.

4. Surround yourself with positive and encouraging people. The people in our lives play an important role in our mood and how we think of ourselves. Make an effort to associate with people who inspire and encourage you to be the best version of you.

5. Seek out a mentor. When taking on new challenges and opportunities it can feel overwhelming and so it is important and beneficial to have an experienced person who can serve as a sounding board and provide counsel and advice while you grow in your work.

Try to implement these five strategies at any time in your life and career and you'll likely decrease the hold that fear, doubts, and uncertainty has over you.

Daily Leap Career Video of the Week: Take Down Imposter Syndrome

Each week we present our Daily Leap Career Video of the Week. The video we share presents news or advice related to career and life development, searching for a job, the economy and employment, and other career-related topics.

A few weeks ago we shared a video on The Imposter Syndrome. Today, the short video below from Forbes encourages you to take down Imposter Syndrome and get rid of those voices in your head telling you that you're not good enough or smart enough to succeed.

Daily Leap Career Video of the Week: Practice Self Compassion

Each week we present our Daily Leap Career Video of the Week. The video we share presents news or advice related to career development, searching for a job, the economy and employment, and other career-related topics.

It’s easy to be difficult on ourselves and this can lead to difficulties in our work and personal lives. The video below provides an exercise in practicing self compassion.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Reasons to Turn Down a Job Offer

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

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• 6 Reasons to Turn Down a Job Offer: "If many team members are recent hires, be sure there is good business reason for the hiring spree, such as a new product or client or a round of funding. Otherwise, too much employee churn hints at a toxic boss or culture."


• What Prevents a Happier Life and Career?: "This one fear keeps people stuck for years, and sometimes for a lifetime. This “what if it doesn’t work out?” worry is crippling."


• How to be a Good Coach: "Choose encouragement over criticism; but when you must criticize, give feedback as soon after the event as possible. Be honest but compassionate, then move on."


• Don't Look for a Job, Look for a Life!: "You have to plant in your mind the idea that you will no longer tolerate less than happiness. You will need to challenge the negative self-talk that keeps you stuck in your current situation."


• 6 Essential Elements to a Good Life: "You won't be happy if you don't produce. The game of life is not rest. Yes, we must rest, but only long enough to gather strength to get back to productivity."

Daily Leap Career Video of the Week: Is it Too Late to Start Over?

Each week we present our Daily Leap Career Video of the Week. The video we share presents news or advice related to career development, searching for a job, the economy and employment, and other career-related topics.

Last week's video offered an important question to help you stop negative self-talk. One negative thing we might tell ourselves is that it's too late to start over or to try something new.

In the video below Gail Blanke, motivator and author of Throw Out Fifty Things, suggests that it's never too late to start over.

3 Steps to a Successful 2015

We are a week into the New Year and some of the "newness" is rubbing off but don't let that diminish your enthusiasm and energy to make 2015 a great year personally and professionally.

This is a good time to assess where you're at in your life and career and begin to develop new habits to ensure more happiness and success. Work on the following three steps in the next week and you'll be off to a productive start for the year.

1. Update your resume and LinkedIn profile: The beginning of the year is a good time to go back over that resume and tweak it to ensure it highlights your strengths and successes, including those from the past year. Also update your profile on LinkedIn.

2. Work on your self-talk: If you haven't yet, watch the video we posted Monday on stopping negative self-talk. You have the ability to be your greatest supporter or your most severe critic. How you view yourself goes a long way toward how others view you and it starts with your self-talk.

3. Find a mentor: If you don't have a mentor, someone you can meet with on a monthly basis to discuss your career plans and goals, use the next week to consider who you might approach about this. It could be your boss, a former supervisor, a professor from school, or a business leader from your community. Once you've identified someone contact them and invite them to meet you for a coffee.

You might also be interested in this article highlighting 6 ways to start 2015 on a high note.

What are you doing now to make 2015 a success?

Daily Leap Career Video of the Week: Stop the Negative Self-Talk

Each week we present our Daily Leap Career Video of the Week. The video we share presents news or advice related to career development, searching for a job, the economy and employment, and other career-related topics.

Start the new year out strong by working to eliminate negative self-talk. The constant dialogue running through our heads can be filled with negative and self-defeating thoughts and to fully succeed we need to understand how to replace this negative talk with positive thoughts.

In the video below Tony Teegarden offers an important question that can help you stop the negative self-talk and look at your life and circumstances in a realistic and positive light.

What are your techniques for dealing with negative self-talk?