Ah, the morning of the interview. You wake up feeling like all is right with the world; then you remember…
Today you have that interview.
Your heart sinks, and your stomach does a double somersault. You feel heavier, but at the same time a little bit energized by the nerves.
What if this is the beginning of a new chapter?
What if this is the answer to all your money worries?
What if,
What if,
What if…. ???
What if you end up so nervous you can’t even think coherently when you get asked a tricky question?
The Drama Plays Out
Your mind swims with all the possibilities, and you notice you’re tired before you’ve even brushed your teeth.
If you can relate to this, you’re not alone.
Interviewing for a new job is one of the most stressful things you’ll ever go through, barring divorce and moving.
But there is something you can do about it.
You see, underneath all the mind chatter, the butterflies in the tummy and having to pee every five minutes, there’s a natural reaction that’s going on in your system.
The really good news is, once you understand what’s going on here, there is something you can do that will allow you to walk into any interview (or stressful situation) completely relaxed, at ease and able to perform at your full capacity.
Getting Through the Drama
The root of all these symptoms is the well-known phenomenon of tension.
Tension is what will keep you feeling self-aware and goofy. It’s the thing that is responsible for you not being able to focus, or come up with good answers on the spot. It’s also responsible for sweaty palms, laughing like a goon at inappropriate moments and making the whole thing more of a horrendous ordeal than a job interview.
Now, don’t let the simplicity of the word “tension” fool you into pulling up the file on what you already know about tension. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, and more importantly, it doesn’t matter how confident you normally are. These situations put everyone into a state of tension, to some degree or another.
“Tension” and “stress” are traditionally things we just live with and “get through.”
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
There is something you can do about it, and you don’t have to just “man up” in order to deal with it effectively.
How To Combat Pre-Interview Tension
Pre-interview tension can be dealt with just like any other form of tension. Here are the important steps to follow:
Step 1: Relate to how you feel right now
This is important, because you take the power and the resistance out of the tension as soon as you acknowledge what is. Pretending you’re completely relaxed, or excited, just generates more tension, because it creates a situation in your mind where you have to compensate for where you are in order to appear to be where you want to be.
By acknowledging what you’re experiencing emotionally in each moment, though, you bring your power back, and thus relieve the tension. If you’re feeling out of control, that’s okay. If you’re feeling sad, that’s fine, too. Whatever you’re feeling, just notice it and acknowledge it to yourself.
Step 2: Notice the physical tension in your body
This is a variation on Step 1, except we now make it tangible and focus on what is happening in the body. I tend to scan my body from head to toe, noticing where the heaviness, or tension, might be being held.
Step 3: Move the body to release the tension
Make sure you’re sitting upright in a chair, at a comfortable height. Some sofas are too low to be able to do this effectively because you end up doubled up over your hips, so a chair of a height that will allow you to have your legs and body at 90 degrees is best.
Start with gently rolling the head and neck, and allow any tightness to evaporate as you move. Then move the shoulders in big circles, rotating the shoulder blades. You’ll notice how your spine might crack and pop a little as you release the heaviness that is held there, particularly if you spend a lot of a time at a desk.
Then move down, rotating your spine clockwise and counterclockwise — slowly, carefully, allowing all the tension to move through the tissue and out, down to the hips. You can even wiggle your bottom on the chair and then lift up each leg (one at a time!) and rotate the hip joint and leg all at once.
What you’re doing here is releasing all the muscle tension, which also helps release mental and emotional tension. Do this as much as you feel you need to, until your body feels lovely and loose and relaxed.
Step 4: Gently bring your awareness back to where you are and the task at hand
You should feel quite refreshed, relaxed and strangely ready to do your interview, minus the butterflies and the busy thoughts.
Where and When: Avoid Weirdness!
Now, you may be thinking this is a little weird to be doing on the metro on the way to the interview (or even in the waiting room!). And yes, you’d be right.
However, if you practice this well before you need to call on it, you will find you can relax at will and almost step through the process in your mind while sitting quietly before you have to go in and perform.
The work really is in the preparation, in the same way a martial artist will train like crazy ahead of a competition, then draw on that training and “fight easy” once they’re in the ring.
Only You…
Only you can do this.
If you read this article, you can chose to implement this and practice it every day. If you do, you’ll be able to call up relaxation when you walk into the building where you’re being interviewed and you will massively stack the odds of success in your favor.
If you read this and do nothing with it — well, you’ve probably wasted your time. Information on its own will do nothing for you.
Information plus implementation can solve any problem you ever come across, and if you’re looking to solve the issue of feeling nervous going into an interview, then you have the solution right here.
I’d love to hear your success stories from applying what you’ve just learned! Here’s to your success, and Share in the comments!
Image: Flickr
