By Jody Lee
radio host, author, political and lifestyle blogger, media consultant
Published: June 5, 2009

Take heart!  With the right attitude and a willingness to climb out of your comfort zone, nothing is impossible.  So put on your big girl panties and get over it!

I derive my income from a number of sources and places and recently, one of the major sources disappeared.  This was not a job whose income I could simply re-budget and work around.  This needed to be replaced.

Poof.  There goes my comfort zone.

Like so many others, I found myself looking for work.  God has long blessed me with a myriad of ways to supplement my income, but the opportunities he has given me have been ones I have had to use my own ingenuity to bring to fruition.  In other words, He doesn’t throw them in my lap.  I have to get up and find them and work for them. 

S’okay by me. 

But jobs that play to my personal strengths aren’t growing on trees these days.  And being significantly over 40 didn’t appear to be working in my favor either.  The number of people applying for each job opening was pretty amazing – and pretty discouraging. 

But I have one thing that the other applicants did not have.  Me.  With whatever trial-and-error wisdom and common sense I have picked up over the years.  I climbed out of my comfort zone and started thinking about employment possibilities that had not occurred to me before. 

And there it was.  A job that is interesting, has benefits and decent pay, and hours that work nicely around my other endeavors.  So with the two weeks notice that my former employer gave me, how long was I unemployed?  Exactly 0 days.

The work is there, folks.  You just have to think outside the box.  Am I earning the same amount of money I earned at my previous job that was eliminated due to a rumbly economy?  Of course not.  But it is enough.  And I am still working.

I encourage you not to poo-poo any job right off the bat.  Think about where it could lead or what opportunities it may present that hadn’t occurred to you.  Because the longer you sit on your duff and collect Unemployment, the more unemployable you become.

You have to stay in the game.  THAT is the bottom line.