Is being unemployed feeling like a chronic condition?  Chronic - it's not sexy,  exciting, or fun.  Worse, chronic means it's not changing and won't go away. Those of us with chronic illness know all about this chronic syndrome.  It weighs you down and keeps you from being "light on your feet".

So, how do you find hope when you're feeling your condition is  "chronic"?  Perspective. What do I mean?  Check out American World Soccer Cup Team goalie, Tim Howard.

Here's a guy with a very difficult to manage and off-putting chronic illness, Tourette  Syndrome.  Living with this, he's risen to world class athlete status.  He's the focal point of media attention that makes his visible, and to many oft-putting, symptoms very public.  FYI - I read somewhere that his mother said that she thought that playing soccer goalie, which requires supreme focus, helped his Tourette's symptoms.  He didn't twitch as much when he played.  My bet is he played often!

Few of us, even if we were healthy, have the stamina or determination of Tim Howard.  But I believe that there's usually something to learn from people who achieve the extraordinary that we can apply to our own lives.

When you look at your job opportunities and the employment landscape, do you think, " I'll never find work"?  Are you blaming it on a lousy job market, a difficult illness, your age or even the time of year?  That could all be true.

But -- and here's the thing -- can you find something that you are good at and you can do and work this angle as hard as possible?

OK - most likely you won't be playing for the Soccer World Cup or the NBA.  You might not get to be president of the company.  But your challenge is to get out of the chronically unemployed syndrome.  Can you do it?

Let's face it.  You can't do as much as you'd like to impact your chronic illness.  But you can take charge of taking care of yourself as best you can.  The same is true with your employment.  What are you going to do about it? 

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