Hello Everyone & Happy Tuesday!

If you’re located in the U.S., we hope you had a nice long weekend. Now that fall is approaching, it’s time to turn your focus on that job search you’ve been procrastinating all summer long. This week’s newsletter is packed with strategies and tips to help you get going. You’ve got this!

It's 2am and your brain has already run the whole thing. The money. The timeline. The version where this never turns around and you never find a job. By morning, it doesn't feel like something you imagined. It feels like something you've already lived, and you are exhausted, sad, and stressed.

That's catastrophizing, and it isn't a character flaw. It's what the mind does with uncertainty when it has nowhere else to put it.

On this episode, I walk through the four-step G.L.O.W. Method for getting clearer: Gain Perspective, Luminate the Goal, Own Your Actions, and Work It DAILY. You'll learn to tell what you actually know from what you're predicting, why "I don't know" is a complete answer, and how to take one meaningful step without waiting to feel confident first.

If you’re stuck in a mental loop about your job search, this one is for you.

Date: Wednesday, September 9th, 2026
Time: 2pm ET

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This week I had a conversation that stopped me in my tracks.

A new member told me her biggest regret was turning down a job interview after she got laid off. She said the job "sounded beneath her" and she figured she could do so much better. Now, looking back, she told me she would have been lucky to have that job.

Later that same day, I talked to someone else who went through an entire interview process, decided the place wasn't right for them, and turned it down. They haven't had another interview since. Now they're kicking themselves because it's a lot easier to land a better job when you already have one.

Two different people. Two different situations. Same exact problem.

You Can't Judge Yesterday's Decision With Today's Information

Here's what's actually going on with both of these people, and probably with you too if you're being honest with yourself: they're judging a decision they made yesterday using information they only have today. That's not fair to you, and it's not accurate either.

You didn't have a crystal ball. You made the best call you could with what you knew in that moment. Beating yourself up about it now, with the benefit of hindsight, doesn't teach you anything useful. It just hurts.

And I need you to hear this part clearly: I am not telling you to ignore the data. The real functional unemployment rate right now is close to 25%, one in four people. That's a brutal market, and I'm never going to sugarcoat that for you. But when you take a hard data point like that and turn it into "I'm such an idiot, I blew it," you've stopped being informed and started being cruel to yourself. And that's where the real damage begins.

This Is Catastrophizing, and It Wrecks Your Job Search From the Inside Out

Once you start replaying old decisions with today's hindsight, you slide into what I call catastrophizing mode. You start predicting more bad outcomes based on the ones you've already had. And I see exactly what this does to people's job searches, every single day, in my coaching practice.

You start tweaking your resume for the hundredth time because you're convinced it's the resume's fault. You start blaming the market, the recruiters, the algorithm, anything but taking your next real step. Or you swing the other way and get desperate, saying yes to things you shouldn't, chasing every lead with a kind of frantic energy that recruiters can smell from a mile away.

None of that is going to get you hired. In fact, it's what's keeping you stuck.

Level Setting, Not Fake Optimism, Is What Actually Moves You Forward

I know some of you are rolling your eyes right now, thinking I'm about to tell you to just "stay positive." I'm not. I don't believe in fake optimism, and I never will. It's not helpful and, honestly, it's a little insulting to what you're going through.

What I believe in is getting level-set. That means seeing your situation clearly, without the doom spiral and without the pep talk. Because here's the truth: if you're sitting in catastrophizing mode, I cannot get you to take the meaningful action your job search actually needs. You'll be too scared. The exact steps that would move you forward will feel terrifying, so you'll keep avoiding them.

But it doesn't have to be that way, and it's not hard to fix this once you know how. You just need someone who's done this for a long time to walk you through it the right way.

Come Break This Mindset With Me

If any of this hit close to home, I want you there for my next free live training. It's called How to Stop Catastrophizing Your Job Search, and I'm walking you through the four steps that break this mental model for good and replace it with a way of thinking that actually gets you hired.

It's free, and it's the kind of session that changes how you show up in every interview from here on out. You can watch it here.

Let's break through this and get your job search moving again.

Go get ‘em!

J.T. O’Donnell

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