Start asking the right questions (and stop asking the wrong ones).

Asking questions can create patterns of activity that compound daily into solutions, for better and for worse. Instead of asking "What job can I find today?" what if you asked, "What kind of job can I create today?" The slight twist of one word, from find to create, might hold the key to more helpful answers. 

To guide your job search, try a simple exercise we call "questionstorming." Take four minutes a day to write down nothing but questions about your job search. Doing this consistently for thirty days will take you down new paths as your questions change and your patterns of action follow. For example, an executive in his mid-thirties and in a career transition began by asking "How can I make a bucket of money?" 

 Over time, that question changed to "What will make me happy for the long term?" Which then changed to "How do I create something for the long term?" As a result, he's moved into different kinds of job interviews, landing one with a big multinational company that otherwise would never have happened had he not changed his question.