My #PositiveVibes Campaign

By Leigh Milligan, Senior Editor

Why #PositiveVibes?

This all started during an #INALJchat on positivity on the job search. My good buddy Claire Schmieder then fellow senior editor now volunteer coordinator, tweeted at me during the chat #PositiveVibes. I got a really good feeling from that, and then it hit me, why not start using #positivevibes in my everyday life.

It never has been easy for me to be positive. I am currently on a very frustrating and long job search for a library job, I graduated with my MLIS in 2011, you do the math.  I’ve had a lot of personal struggles in the last few years including my home burning down and losing everything I own. I used to turn to social media and post a lot of woe is me and negative Nancy statuses. I lost a lot of followers this way. I felt it was my only release.

Positivity is not easy.  I have decided I want to be more positive.  I’ve had a lot of great experiences this year. I bought a new home and started over. I have an upcoming wedding in May 2015. My crafting business, 8BitFusion where I do pop culture and video game is happily blooming.

In the library world, although no current library job, I feel like I am more on the up than ever before.  I’ve written more blogs (This is my 20th post for INALJ), I have made a lot of great networking connections, I have been successful with #INALJchat and I have gotten more involved in ALA and SLA, and I continue to volunteer through different opportunities to help others which is just good karma all around.  So I want to keep this going and continue to share my #positivevibes with others and help others to be more positive through the #positivevibes campaign. I find it very important to be positive as positivity and negativity can reflect you as a person, on the job search, networking, social media and in every day life.

But How Can I Be Positive?

There are many different ways to be positive and share positivity on the job search, in your career and in everyday life: Here are a few of my favorites.

1. Share your positivity! People like myself like to hear from someone when something positive happens. It can be something big or small. You can do this through word of mouth, social media (Facebook, twitter etc.), write a blog or make a video.  Be creative! People like to hear from you!
2. Make a happiness jar! Get a jar and throughout the year write down the positive things that happened to you and put them in the jar. At the end of the year, open the jar and relive all the positive memories ☺ Here’s some creative ideas to make your jar from Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/pegfitzpatrick/happiness-jar-project/
3. Network! I cannot stress enough the importance of networking! It’s a great way to share with others all the positive things you are doing in your career and who knows it could always lead to another opportunity.

Positivity is not always easy especially with all the sadness and tragedy in the world. But if we all try one of these things or come up with more of our own ideas for being positivity, we will see more smiles each day.

So I leave you with this, share in the comments you plans for keeping the #postivevibes campaign going this year!