 Welcome to the final unit of Sailor.org's Job Search Skills course. You may have enrolled in this course for many reasons. Maybe you were laid off from your job, or are looking for your very first job, or perhaps you are ready to take that next step up the career ladder, or even desire to change careers completely. Whatever your reason for embarking on a job search, you are probably, and very understandably, experiencing a high level of stress. Although it may seem that you are becoming overwhelmed with negative thoughts, unproductive behaviors, and uncontrollable emotions, you will learn in this unit that stress can be managed, and that you are just the one to do it. The first step in learning to manage our stress is to identify the specific causes. Do they relate to long-term stressors, or are short-term stressors getting the best of you? Once we can put a label on our source of stress, we can begin to learn and apply coping skills that will put us once again in the driver's seat. One way of identifying and measuring our long-term stress is by taking the Homes and Race stress scale test. This test rates various life-change events and estimates our risk of becoming ill in the very near future. To help us analyze and manage short-term stress, dealing with difficult people, poor time management, burnout, etc., we should begin to keep a stress diary. By keeping this diary, we can look for patterns of ineffective reactions to stress and concentrate on applying appropriate coping skills. This unit will provide you with a stress diary template that you may find helpful throughout your job search. This unit will also ask you, are you a positive or negative thinker? You will learn how positive and negative thinking can become self-fulfilling prophecies and can greatly impact the level of success we achieve in our job search efforts. It is interesting to note that when given identical problems, the negative thinker only concentrates on the obstacles that will prevent successful resolution. The positive thinker, conversely, frames the problem in such a way that he or she concentrates on the positive side or the opportunities presented by the challenge. So, while we cannot avoid stress completely, nor should we want to, it is important to recognize stress for what it is and to develop a plan to cope with stressors. A positive attitude will go a long way toward helping us adapt to the stressor. Of course, some things are simply out of our control. We must learn to accept these challenges for what they are and to not let them deter us from our mission. However, if we suspect that ineffective time management is causing us stress, it is important to organize our daily schedule to include some fun and relaxation during this time of change. We wish you the best of luck.