Today, I spoke to a client. He mentioned that, since he had decided to hire me and we had a plan in place to move forward, he felt much better about his job search plans and not so hurried or hectic. I told him I thought that was a great topic for a blog post!

Do you find that just having a plan makes it easier to think about a big task? Sometimes, making the plan work involves partnering with an expert. I am a big proponent of hiring someone to help me when I’m trying to do something that is not my forte. In fact, I mentioned to my client my story about painting my house. While I *could* have painted (the inside) myself, it would have taken me a lot longer and the results would not have been as good as they were when I hired a professional.
(You should have seen my painters painting trim – they didn’t even use tape!) Stay tuned for tips to help you plan your job hunt, but today, I thought it would be fun to share one of my “hired some experts and didn’t regret it” stories from the archives! Hope it’s a good reminder for you!

This week, I’m having my house painted. Inside and out – fresh paint, new colors. It has been a while. My friends know that this has been a long time in coming. I’ve been talking about painting for months!

The first obstacle – picking colors! For the interior decorators among you, this may be hard to believe, but choosing colors for several key rooms in the house seemed like an overwhelming problem. What if it looked bad? What needed to match? Or not match? I had no interest in making a mistake in my home.

What did I finally do? I hired an expert. Laura came in with her paint swatches, asked me what I liked and proceeded to explain what she would recommend. She has seen the colors she recommended to me in many, many homes. On the walls! I trusted her ideas and knew I could move forward confidently.

But, that wasn’t all. I still had a few choices to make. I needed to buy some samples and see how I liked them on the walls. But, being “too busy” (I really am busy – how do you think this blog gets written?!), I procrastinated. For a long time. It wasn’t until the painter I had said I would hire called back to check in that I finally went to work on making final color selections. It was easier to TALK about making a change than it was to actually make a change. Surprise!

Does this sound like you? Not about painting, but about your job hunt? Is it overwhelming to even think about starting? I hired someone to help me (trying to take my own advice to hire an expert). Should you do the same thing? Think about it – you can sit around and procrastinate or you can take some action!

Even when I had my professional advice, I still needed to actually take action and move forward. The same is true for you. No matter what, you will need to take steps to move forward. The fact is, nothing was going to get painted in my house unless I made a conscious choice – and took a bit of a chance. Nothing happens without action.