One of the greatest challenges for job seekers is fighting frustration. When you've been looking for a job for an extended period of time, it's easy to lose focus and forget that the most important asset you have to offer any company is ... YOU. Here are a few tips to get yourself re-energized in this first month of the new year.

Get comfortable with what you have accomplished.

Allow yourself to be who you are. Take some time to write down the knowledge, skills and abilities that you have gained in previous jobs and volunteer experiences.

Why is this important? When people don't feel they are worthy of a job or don't have the necessary skills for the job, they tend to downplay what they can bring to the table. For instance, you may have organized a charity fund raiser for your community. Perhaps that involved recruiting the necessary volunteers, getting retailers to offer items for donations, locating the venue, deciding who to invite, doing a marketing campaign, etc. By completing that one effort, you have gained (or enhanced) management, organization, and marketing skills. Give yourself some personal credit for that. Even if those aren't skills you want to use in the future, they can certainly boost your self-confidence.

Please take some additional time to get comfortable with what you want from a new career experience.

Think about your dream job in smaller, more manageable bites.

Rather than just saying "I want to be a vice president of sales", list what I call your "absolutes" in terms of location, pay, hours, etc. Then take it a step further and try to identify the specific skills, abilities and preferences that you have and want to use going forward. Do you enjoy accounting but not tax work? Do you enjoy working in a team environment or are you at your best when working alone? Do you produce your best work in a fast paced environment or one that is more sedate? Use your own past experiences to write down what portions of each job or volunteer experience you thrived in and in what circumstances you felt that producing work was more of a challenge.

Step outside your previous job title.

Take that newly acquired self-knowledge and allow yourself to think about different ways to use your knowledge and skills. If you look for jobs online and only use one search criteria, say "Human Resources" take a few minutes and change that search criteria to "Management" or "Non-Profit" or something else that you find interesting. Make it an area (or five) that you have never explored before. The more you allow yourself to be flexible, the more doors you open for yourself.

Be willing to open yourself up to how your skills might generalize.

Recently I talked to one job seeker who was telling me that he really enjoyed telling people about his last company's services and the interactions that he had with people. He wasn't sure if those abilities would translate into any other job opportunities. I suggested that he might have an interest in recruitment because he could showcase a company's service and be very interactive with prospective employees at the same time. Whether he chose that path or not, I'll never know, but it was great to see his eyes open up as he considered that there might be different options available to him than what he originally had considered.

Keep the faith.

Know that no matter what you are going through, you are a very worthy individual and you will find the right employment fit eventually. If I could sum this all up in one short phrase, it would be: Be willing to be yourself, be confident in who you are and everything will fall in place.

♦

Vicki Amsinger is the owner of

Vela HR Consulting, Inc., which assists area companies with their HR needs. Connect with Vella online

at velahrconsulting.com.