What is Muay Thai, you ask? It translates to the “art of eight limbs.” So while boxers use their hands, Muay Thai fighters utilize their hands, legs, knees, and elbows. (Cool, right? The elbows are particularly fun to throw.)
I’ve been training Muay Thai kickboxing for about eight months now, and people close to me know that I’ll talk forever to anyone who’ll listen about how it has improved my life. It’s been awhile since I’ve written a post with a personal perspective, and I realized some of the lessons I’ve learned over the past year translate well to job search and career management.
Three lessons about how to effectively job search that I’ve learned from training muay Thai:
1. You get out of it exactly what you put into it. You can attend a class and throw punches and kicks at 50% power, but you’re not doing anyone any favors, or you can give 110% to any training session and see results and improvement faster.
Job searching is similar. You have to push yourself to work harder and longer. If you don’t, you’re not doing anyone any favors. Push yourself to hit a new target, perhaps making three more calls every day, think outside of the box by being open minded to alternative job targets, and cover all your bases with a targeted resume, well-written cover letter, a detailed, branded LinkedIn profile, and an online professional presence. My colleague Julie Walraven wrote a short but effective post inspired by a Chris Brogan quote about making excuses or making progress. Which one will you choose?
2. Pay attention to the details – all the time, every time. Any one technique in Muay Thai has a checklist of what each body part is supposed to be doing right. When you throw a punch, it’s: shoulder up, chin down, other hand at your cheek, and hips turning while pivoting on the ball of your foot. Every time you throw a punch, proper form requires keeping everything in check. “Shoulder, chin, shoulder” can be heard as a reminder in every class. There’s no point in practicing if your technique is wrong. You practice to get it right every time.
Networking is the same way. There should never be anything considered a “practice conversation” or a “test run.” Just like practicing with sloppy form is a waste of time, networking just to say you’re networking is a waste of your time. You never know who could lead you to your next opportunity. If you’re going to go through the motions of networking, do it purposefully and correctly. Prepare and make every networking call your best. Offer to help those in your network. Stay connected to people on a consistent basis. Reach out to people with specific questions about whom or what they might know. Make every call or contact count. If you’re worried about being an inconvenience, my colleague Miriam Salpeter shares how to convince people to help you with your job search without being annoying.
3. Push past your comfort zone – again, and again. Trying new things and reaching new achievement levels is, in my opinion, what makes us better. It’s hard to improve if you don’t stretch yourself and remain open minded, and it’s certainly no fun going through life being afraid of what makes you uncomfortable.
The Wise Job Search wrote about quit looking for easy – and I could not agree more. In your job search, how often do you avoid making that cold call or reaching out to someone in your network to ask for help? My colleague Lisa Rangel explains why conversations are the number one job search metric everyone should be tracking – with which I also could not agree more. Easy or comfortable is not going to get you where you want to be.
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As a friend of mine recently commented, things enter our life at a certain point for a reason. As a woman, Muay Thai is one of the most empowering things I’ve ever done. It’s amazing exercise (cardio and strength training all in one), confidence boost, and stress reliever all in one. My wish for you is that you find your own activity that adds clarity to your job search and a release from the stress of your daily life. If you’d like help moving forward in your job search, email or call me now. Don’t wait another day. Perhaps the time is right to partner on a new resume, executive bio, or LinkedIn profile.
