Yogi Berra once said, "Baseball is 90 percent mental, the other half is physical." Job search is a lot like baseball; before someone learns anything about your qualifications and accomplishments, they notice your attitude. A positive attitude will carry you a long way toward your goals.
This poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox uses sailing as a metaphor to describe how people in difficult circumstances have a great deal of control over how they react in trying times. It reminds us that, with God's help, we are responsible for our outlook, emotions and moods:
The Set of the Sails One ship drives east, and another west With the self-same winds that blow; 'Tis the set of the sails And not the gales That decides the way to go.
Like the winds of the sea are the ways of fate, As they voyage along through life; 'Tis the will of the soul That decides its goal, And not the calm or the strife.
-- Ella Wheeler Wilcox (US writer, poet, journalist; 1850-1919)
In other words, good and bad things (breezes) happen to all of us. The thing that separates the winners of the world from the rest of the pack is not the events themselves, but how we react to those events. Your attitude — the set of your sails — is the most important factor in whether this transition is successful or not.
