A lot of people struggle with writing cover letters and end up with something a little lifeless, a little boring, a little… beige. We’re all taught to write those formal, cookie-cutter cover letters, but so much has changed since our grandparents and parents were entering the workforce. This is the age of new technologies and start up companies, so all those lemming-like cover letters will only cause your resume to commit suicide into the hiring manager’s trash bin.

So why not add a bit of colour?

I don’t mean that everyone should start printing their resumes on tinted paper spritzed with perfume, but rather about putting your personality into what you are writing. There are a bunch of studies on how colours can affect your mood, and what you need to remember is words can evoke the same emotions.

Think about it this way. If you had a bunch of cover letters that sent your brain into a taupe and grey haze, I highly doubt you’d have any desire to interview the people who sent them. But if you had a rainbow of resumes to choose from, you’d find the process a whole lot more enjoyable and be more likely to give those people a chance.

Grab a couple of your friends and ask them what colour they think represents you, and also think about what colour you want to be. Are you an optimistic, confident, and creative yellow? A courageous and exciting red? A cool, intelligent blue? Harmonious green? Passionate orange? Nurturing pink?

Now have them read your cover letter. Does it have a matching aura or is it the neutrality of grey, give the oppressive feeling of blackness, have the heaviness of brown, or feel as sterile as white? To give your cover letter some Technicolor, here are some tips:

1) Research the company you’re applying for and pay attention to any written content they’ve made available, then gear the tone of your cover letter in a similar fashion. What colour do their words evoke and how will your colour compliment that?

2) Write in your own voice, but be sure you still use correct spelling and grammar. Excellent communication skills are always a must, no matter what job you’re applying for.

3) Say what drew you to the company; people always like to know what they’re doing right and enjoy sincere praise. Don’t be a suck-up, but be honest in what you like and why you want to work for them.

4) Tell them how you would be an asset to the business. Sure, numbers can give your potential value to their bottom line, but it doesn’t really say how well you’ll fit in as part of the team. If you can give an interesting anecdote, then do it! Everyone loves a good story, and if you happen to be the hero of the tale all the better.

Business owners want employees who will bring something to their company, something that no one else has, and if you allow yourself to get lost in the muddy-hued crowd then no one will see the brilliance you have offer. So when you write a cover letter, paint a picture that allows the colour of you to shine through!

Some of you may have seen my previous post about “My Perfect Day” from earlier this week. It wasn’t a real day, not yet, but it is a day I hope will come at some point in the future. I was thinking about what I would consider an ideal twenty-four hours due to a book I had just finished reading called “Love is a Thief” by Claire Garber. I plan to do a review about the book itself on my book blog at some point soon, so I won’t get into that here.

The basic premise of the book is the main character, Kate, has just gotten out of a relationship and had to ask herself: What do I like doing? What did I not get to do because I was in a relationship? What would I be happy doing for the rest of my life? And so began her quest to discover what her “love-stolen dreams” are and set about accomplishing them.

One of the characters in the novel is a life coach Kate goes to see, and he walks her through a visualization exercise. And before you start saying not to believe everything I come across in a fictional works, I do know that many coaches suggest visualization to help you reach your goals. I had recently come across the practice in my quest for fitness, and didn’t think to apply it to the larger picture that is my entire life.

The life coach has Kate imagine her perfect day, saying it would help her figure out what she wants out of life. Too many people focus on what they don’t want, so the universe –and your brain– hears are the same words repeated over and over again… and it isn’t hearing the “don’t” part of the equation. That is why so many people get exactly what they don’t want, rather than what they do.

This exercise will help focus on what you truly desire and whenever you feel discouraged,  you can think back to this dream day and remind yourself why you’re doing what you are: It is taking life one step at a time to reach your goal.  And it isn’t just the material or physical aspects of the dream you should take note of, but the feelings of emotion you have as well. Joy, excitement, contentment, love, friendship… It’s all there. Every morning you should take a few minutes to go back to your perfect day, so you become used to feeling that way. You deserve to be happy, and shouldn’t feel guilty about a lack of stress or worry or sadness or anger or frustration.

So that’s what I did. I took some time, did my yoga deep-breathing to clear and calm my mind, and then spent a few minutes imagining what my perfect day would be like. I saw myself having a wonderful husband with a child on the way, I was a published author and an editor, I was living in the UK, had some really cute vehicles, was still in touch with my best friends… It really is simply perfect. It is everything I want in life: a loving family, wonderful friends, a job I enjoy, and living in a place that feels like home.

We spend far too much time in the present reality and don’t take enough time to just…be. Be ourselves, be truthful about our hopes and desires, be happy. If we focus on what our current and possibly unsatisfactory life is, then we’ll get bogged down and start to lose hope. And that is so important, because without the hope of what may come, faith we can achieve our dreams, and a love of self, what is life really worth existing for? I can achieve my dreams. I will have my perfect day. And I know I deserve to have everything my heart truly desires.

What is your dream day like and do you believe you deserve to have it?

SUMR

I slowly wake up to a kiss and give a sleepy smile, before rolling over to snuggle further into my pillow. There is a tugging of my comforter and I pout, even as I hear “Oh, no you don’t” with a deep, glorious laugh.  

I’m pulled out of bed and up against the hardness of his body for another kiss before he nudges me towards the bathroom with a pat on my bottom. I swat at his hand, but go into the bathroom to shuck my pajamas and shower. I know that while I am in there he will have let the dogs out into the back garden.

As I exit the bathroom wearing my comfy robe , I head for the kitchen to see he’s already eaten. I’m still a bit sleep befuddled, and realize he must have an early meeting today. He looks up to smile at me before folding up his newspaper —he likes print more than digital so we have one delivered every morning. By the paper I see an envelope with familiar writing on it, which he picks up and he heads over to where I’m standing.

He shows me the envelope and I reach for it, but he holds it up in the air. Laughing, I try to grab it but can’t. Finally, when the gaping robe showing off my cleavage distracts him, I grab the letter.  He slips his hand into my robe from my stomach to my bare back, and gives me another kiss before heading off to work.

I pour myself some cereal and take a quick glance through the paper to check out the latest news, then rip open the letter I’d just gotten from Caroline. I eat breakfast while reading, and absentmindedly pet the chocolate lab lying under the kitchen table with my foot. I love getting letters from my bestie!

I put my dish in the sink, and with Marmallow following behind me I go to the living room to crank the stereo. I pick up our other puppy, a maltese cross named Bellissima, and rock out down the hall. Putting Bella down I open the doors to my closet, large enough to be a walk-in but isn’t quite, and ask them, “What shall I wear today?” I finally decide on a pretty sundress, which I lay out on the bed, and change from my robe into a tank top with flannel pants and fuzzy socks.

Still trailed by Mars and Bella, I go to my home office and start up my laptop. The dogs keep me company as I spend the morning writing my latest novel until an alarm goes off. My man must have set it for me knowing that if it wasn’t I’d lose complete track of time, and today I couldn’t be late. I get dressed, do my hair and make-up, then blow a kiss to the puppies as I walk out the door.

I give my vespa a pat as I walk by (even though it’s rather impractical I had always wanted one) and contemplate driving my new VW bug, but I decide to walk instead because I hate parking downtown. It’s only a fifteen minute trek to the café and it’s a lovely day out for a stroll. I go down the walkway and cross over a footbridge, pausing a moment to enjoy the scenery and give a wave to some neghbourhood children playing nearby.

I arrive at the café to see Holly has already arrived and gotten a table for us. She’s visiting from some nearby European country, probably Spain or France but who knows with her, and made time to have lunch with me. We have an enjoyable meal, and we make plans to have another get-together the next month before she has to leave for her meeting. I check my watch and realized that I need to get going as well.

I stroll through town, pausing to look in the window of an independently owned bookshop. It’s one of my favourites and I wave back at the owner who is arranging the display. He wiggles a book at me and I grin, as it’s one I had worked on (either written or edited). I continue on my way and go into an adorable office building, very quaint rather than the more modern glass-and-steel.

I pause here and there to chat with this person or that, and then settle at my own desk to go through my slush pile hoping to find a diamond among the unsolicited manuscripts. I work until someone asks me if I want to go to a nearby pub with them, and I realize the workday is over. I decline and head home instead.

I buy a bouquet of wild flowers on my way back, and try to keep them from being mangled in the puppies’ excitement of their owner being back. I let the dogs out into the back garden, and put the flowers in a vase. While I’m arranging them I hear the door open and close, smiling at the knowledge that he’s home from work, too. His arms come around me and I cuddle back into his strong embrace.

I turn for a kiss, then slip from his grasp to take the flowers into the dining room to put on the table there. He has started pulling out the ingredients for dinner, and we cook together. Once he even takes me in his arms to dance around the kitchen and I all but knock us down from laughing so hard.

We take our dinner into the dinning room, and as we eat we discuss our days, our future family, when we’ll next visit our respective parents. We call the dogs in, them having run off any excess energy, and give them their dinner. While they eat we do the dishes, him up to his elbows in suds and me drying because he knows I hate to wash.

He and I go to the living room and the puppies follow. Bellissima curls up on her dog pillow, but Marmallow flops down on the rug at our feet. Picking up our latest book he reads aloud to me, and I curl up into his side with his arm around me. I love the lyricism of his lilt and slowly drift to sleep to the flow of his words and the rhythm of his heart beating in my ear. I tend to tire out a lot easier than I used to now that I’m a couple months pregnant. I’m grateful, as I prefer sleepiness to morning sickness.

I wake up just a little when I realize he is lifting me into his arms, and I wrap my own around him and nuzzle the crook of his neck as he carries me to bed. He lays me down, helps me into my pajamas, and then gets ready for bed himself. He crawls in next to me and wraps his arms around me. “I love you” is the last thing I hear from my husband before drifting back into a sound sleep. 

SUMR