Making the most of a bad situation these days takes a lot more than prayer, a glass of champagne, and getting lost in your iPad.  If you’ve been lost looking for a ray of hope in the otherwise cloudy skies of the job market, just look up and if that doesn’t help and you are still in some serious doubt, then change it up.

When you feel like your job track has been all over the place and you’ve been running the relay like the Long Beach Grand Prix, it’s time to figure out how many laps you’ll need to get to the finish line.  It’s not enough to make sure you are in top order, but going the distance when the road is anything but clear makes you wish you were a bystander rather than in the race. When you are not sure where you are headed other than the circles you keep running, it’s time to course correct your career and get yourself moving in the right direction.

Seems these days it’s not such a bad thing to be sitting on your bum, getting a tan, catching up on your reading or any other activity you were meaning to get to and couldn’t because you were over-worked and well, very employed.  It’s not that your lazy by any means.  Having enough time to balance and enjoy all aspects of your life adds to your experience.  So next time someone gives you a dirty look or rolls their eyes because you are still looking for your next job, just smile and clap your hands.

As the song goes, “You can’t always get what you want,” but you will always get what you need.  When it comes to focusing on what it will take to make you happy in your career, you need to discover what truly drives your ambitions.  Is it money?  Is it title? Is it freedom?  Is it creativity?  Is it routine? Finding out what truly makes you wake up each morning and embrace the day with vigor, courage and yes, desire will help you towards reaching and succeeding in your career goals.  Knowing what truly drives you to move forward in life and mapping out the plan that will help you get there is as much as knowing what you want from what you truly need.

Consider your job search without borders.  Yes, it’s hard to find a job period let alone find one you love.  But just like dating, keeping your options open and not settling for the first one that comes along applies to your job search as well.  Have you ever wondered what it would be like if your choices were endless?  Think about the possibilities of being able to change the outcome each and every time you had a chance to try reliving the perfect interview or accepting the ideal job offer. When you know that you are in it to win it, nothing else matters and your quest is less about choosing from the limited jobs than it is from grabbing one of the limitless opportunities that are out there for you.

If you’ve ever heard the expression, “skin in the game,” don’t worry, it’s not a reference to a condition you get if you turn into a zombie in the AMC series “The Walking Dead.” It is a condition you get however, if you ask yourself what is your long term commitment when it comes to your career and if you have what it takes to stay the course.  Many of us think that by focusing on the meeting or the resume or the job offer, we’ve done our best to commit to the process of establishing our career goals and job search when little else seems to matter. When you have skin in the game when it comes to your career, it means are you committed to the long-term plan and asking yourself, Do you really know what you want and how to keep it?

Walking on a tight rope?  Feeling like you may need them, but they don’t necessarily need you?  Wondering when you might be fired or worse just “ignored” enough to make you want to quit?  Managing to survive in your career when the odds are building up against you takes a certain amount of courage and guts.  It’s not easy not to feel wanted or needed when you were hired to do a job and you feel like you are constantly looking over your shoulder, uninvited to attend meetings or questioned at every turn. Managing to survive and managing your career can be one in the same when you are ready to jump ship or feel like you are being pushed off.

How desperate are you really?  Would you sell your soul for the right opportunity? Would you get a divorce, cheat on your significant other, steal, or lie for money, fame or a corner office?  What lengths would you go to in order to secure your future career aspirations?  It was recently reported where Yahoo! CEO, Scott Thompson falsely claimed a computer science degree on his resume to land his job.  Not that it may have helped him in his long-term career goals, but it certainly added a credential to his resume when he needed it.  What would you do in order to land your perfect job?

Making sense of the rules and regulations that govern every aspect of our lives, particularly how we work and whom we choose to work with, isn’t always a case of black and right.  You think there is a higher judge, a fairness police that sorts it all out, making the nimrods with jobs seem like the lucky ones when the rest of us need to struggle to survive the politics.  Not knowing which end is up is never easy. Not knowing which end is down is even harder.  When the rules of the game change and you seem to be lost in figuring it out, don’t sweat the small stuff, just change the rules.

Living life large may not have been in the cards for you when you accepted the job offer, but sometimes you feel that your survival depends on how well you can play the career game when the rules inevitably change over time.  It’s not just about keeping up anymore or doing a good job.  You have to be very astute and understand the hidden dynamics of any workplace environment whether you have your eye on the corner office or not.