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I am pleased to introduce you to our new guest columnist, Joel Carnes. Joel Carnes is your friendly Encore Career Coach. He is CEO of IDEAL Career Services, and the Founder of ENCORE Career Institute.  His passion is helping people to develop careers that matter in the second half of life.  So without further ado, here is Joel’s first article for our readers…

The Fear Formula
Foreclosures and Layoffs and Global Economic Crises – Oh My!
 
This Halloween, ghouls and goblins are some of the least scary things around.  Vampires?  Puh-leese.  Chainsaw wielding lunatics?  Yawn… This year our fears are coming from a deeper, darker place than the Underworld.  This year, for many of us, our fears are centered around the economy.  We may hear that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, but that isn’t all that reassuring when our fears seem to echo in every major financial center around the world.  So what can we do to minimize our fears, without sticking our proverbial heads in the sand?

First off, lets recognize fear for what it is.  Fear is:
 
Fantasized
Experiences
Appearing
Real
 
Fear is another word for uncertainty.  When we don’t know what to expect, we often fantasize various scenarios that might play out in any given situation.  And, of course, our natural tendencies are to spend an inordinate amount of our time focusing on the potential negative outcomes.  It is as if we have our own internal editorial staffs making sure that our thoughts are dominated by negative headlines just like the nightly news.  If it bleeds, it leads…
 
So how can we reduce uncertainty, especially in uncertain times?  Let’s begin by looking at the following formula:

                            What I don’t know
 Uncertainty =                                   
                            What I do know
 
In this example, if “what we don’t know” on a subject gets a score of 10, and “what we do know” gets a score of 2, then our Uncertainty = 5.  We can lower our Uncertainty, and hence our Fear, by decreasing what we don’t know (the numerator), and increasing what we do know (the denominator).
Let’s look at uncertainty and fear around career change.  The “what I don’t know” number in this equation begins off the charts.  When we start contemplating a career change, the very scope of this number can seem too daunting to approach.  However, with a little work, we can quantify this number.  To see what we don’t know, we need to write out all of our questions surrounding a subject.  For example:
 
1.  How hard is it going to be to get a job in this economy?
2.  What special training is required for the position I am interested in?
3.  How do I get in touch with the right people?
4.  What skills do I have that employers want?
5.  What are the best job search methods available?
6.  What resources are available to help me in my transition?
 
On the flip side, the “what I know” part of the equation, as it relates to career change, is usually pretty low for most people to start with.  However, it is relatively easy to remedy this situation.  For one thing, we often don’t realize just how much we know until we stop to think about it objectively.  To see what we know, we need to write out all of our knowledge surrounding the same subject.  For example:

1.  Unemployment is currently at 6.5%, and may reach 8.5% by the time the next President is inaugurated
2.  Networking can lead to many job opportunities that otherwise would have never been found
3.  Monster.com is full of “junk ads” and can be a huge time-suck for job seekers
4.  Sending out a shotgun blast of resumes rarely gets anyone a job
5.  I have great skills in Microsoft Office applications
6.  I know this great career coach, and he would probably help me out

When we see all of our knowledge in a certain subject area lined up against everything we don’t know, we accomplish two things.  First off, we are able to immediately reduce our uncertainty and fear by acknowledging that we are not so clueless in this area as we had first supposed.  Second, the roadmap to mitigating our remaining fear (perhaps even eliminating it entirely) is staring us right in the face.  Simply take one question at a time from the “what I don’t know” list, and find the answer.  This reduces the numerator while simultaneously increasing the denominator.  The rate of fear reduction is directly related to how quickly you can answer your questions.
 
Here’s even better news – you don’t have to have all of the answers!  There is room for uncertainty and doubt (and fear) in life.  All we need to do is chip away at the unknown, one question at a time, until we transfer enough elements into the known pile that the remaining unknowns don’t bother us as much any more.
 
About the Author:
 
Joel Carnes, the Encore Career Coach, is CEO of IDEAL Career Services, and the Founder of ENCORE Career Institute.  His passion is helping people to develop careers that matter in the second half of life.  Joel is not currently accepting private clients, but you can work with him directly in various ENCORE Career Institute Workshops.
 
To learn more about which ENCORE Career Workshop might be right for you, call (800) 301-9985, e-mail  joel@encorecareerinstitute.org or visit www.encorecareerinstitute.org.