So I came across a story this week that tickled the HR guy in me.

William Rath is a former safari driver turned law school graduate from Orlando who had sent out enough job applications to qualify as a second job, with considerably worse pay and benefits. So, he reached out for advice and his TikTok followers had a suggestion.

Hire an Etsy witch.

William did exactly that. What he actually booked was a tarot reading, not a spell, to find out when he might land a job. A few days later, his calendar started filling up with interviews. They came in so fast that he made a follow up video asking the witch, respectfully, to please slow down a little. That video got a ton of views and the comment section was wall to wall people asking for the witch's name, which is the most human possible response to this story and I love it completely.

Despite dropping some of his savings on the witch, William didn’t fully buy into her powers and didn’t think the cards deserved the all the credit for his change in fortunes. He thought the real change was a new confidence he didn't have before. Something about doing something different, something a little ridiculous and a little hopeful, shifted how he was showing up to his job search.

I've spent a good chunk of my career in human resources and I have watched enough job searches, and have been through a few tough ones of my own, to know that confidence is not a soft skill. It's more of a functional one. And that matters because research on stress and performance shows that the longer a job search (or any challenging situation) goes without results, the more cortisol builds up, the more the prefrontal cortex, the part of your brain responsible for clear thinking and composed self presentation, starts to struggle. The confidence erodes. The interviews get harder. It's a cycle that feeds itself and gets harder to break the longer it runs.

And this is exactly what makes William's story so interesting.

The version of William who walked into those interviews was the same person who had sent out hundreds of applications and heard nothing back. Same resume. Same qualifications. Different posture. Different story running in his head about how this was all going to go. And research on belief and performance backs this up pretty well. When you genuinely believe something is about to shift, you behave differently. You carry yourself differently. You walk into the room with different energy. And those behavioral changes produce real, measurable differences in how other people respond to you.

The witch didn't give William interviews. The witch gave William the feeling that he was doing something, making a move, and breaking the pattern. And that feeling changed everything downstream.

There's actually a name for what was happening pre-witchcraft. Psychologists call it learned helplessness, which is the state that sets in when repeated attempts produce no results and you start to feel like waiting rather than someone making choices. One of the most effective ways to interrupt it is to do something different because the act of choosing something new restores your sense of agency. And agency is where confidence lives.

When you're stuck and the conventional approach has already shown you what it can do, sometimes the thing that breaks the cycle isn't trying harder but rather trying something different. Something that feels a little silly and a little hopeful and gives you back the one thing a long stretch of trying with no results takes away.

Your confidence.

So here's your one thing for this week.

Think about whatever unconventional, slightly silly, slightly hopeful thing you've been too sensible to try. Maybe it’s something you've dismissed because it doesn't fit neatly into the playbook. Ask yourself two honest questions. What have I been doing on repeat that isn't working? And what's the one thing I haven't tried because it feels too different or too weird or too hopeful?

Then try the second thing.

Your witch doesn't have to be a tarot reading. It might be reaching out to someone you've been too intimidated to contact. It might be applying for the job you think is out of your league. It might be changing the story you've been telling yourself about how this is going to go. It might be doing something small and slightly ridiculous that makes you feel like you're in motion again.

Whatever it is, do it this week. Break the pattern. Get back in motion. Let the version of you that shows up afterward be a little more like the version you were before the long stretch of trying took some of the shine off.

Find your witch.

If you've ever been harder on yourself than you would be on literally anyone else in your life, this one's for you.

On Wednesday October 14th at 7pm London time (you’ll have to do the math on converting to local time for you), behavioral change specialist Shahroo Izadi is hosting a live online event called How To Be Kind To Yourself, presented by Action for Happiness. Shahroo is the bestselling author of The Kindness Method and spent years working across NHS and addiction treatment settings before bringing her compassionate, evidence based approach to a much wider audience. She has also personally used her own methods to lose eight stone and keep it off. Eight stone sounds so cool, but the fact that it's 112 pounds makes it more impressive.

The event will walk you through practical tools for building a kinder relationship with yourself, quieting the harsh inner critic, and remembering that a slip is just a slip and not a referendum on who you are.

It's one hour, it's online, and it sounds genuinely worth your time if anxiety has been a traveling companion you'd like to understand a little better.

It’s free, or you can make a $10 donation to an awesome organization called Action for Happiness.

That's Volume 078. Here's to former safari drivers turned law graduates, Etsy witches with million view origin stories, and the truth that sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is try something slightly ridiculous and let it give you back your belief.

Until next time: breathe deep, find your witch, and chill the duck out.

Jason

Research on stress and cognitive performance shows that elevated cortisol impairs prefrontal cortex function, reducing capacity for clear thinking, emotional regulation, and confident self presentation. Studies on the placebo effect in performance contexts show that genuine belief in a positive outcome produces measurable behavioral changes that independently improve results. Research on learned helplessness shows that repeated failure without results produces passive resignation most effectively interrupted by novel action rather than increased effort in the same direction. Studies on agency and confidence show that the feeling of making an active choice rather than waiting for something to happen restores confidence and improves performance outcomes. Research on job search stress and interview performance consistently shows that candidate confidence and composure are among the strongest predictors of interviewer evaluation independent of qualifications.