The holidays are upon us and while there are always exceptions, if you are unemployed today you will probably remain so through the end of the year. As the year winds down, it's a good time to connect with people who have previously been too busy to talk to you. But even if they may be available, their minds are often everywhere but where you'd like them to be. So, what to do with these lazy, hazy days of autumn? 

Visualize next year's job—and make it good.

Last installment I talked about pushing aside fantasy and returning to reality. Effective visualization does not consist of pondering whether your new job should be as grand as the Queen of England's or as lucrative as Derek Jeter's.

Instead, imagine being happy doing something you can do—or can reasonably learn to do—in a field in which you have experience or one in which you've always had interest. Next, get a paper, pen or computer and get ready to give the vision some definition.

Put your thoughts into three columns. The first column is what I was taught to label "BLUE SKY."  It should contain your ideal characteristics for the perfect job. Now, this is different than the aforementioned fantasies. Your blue sky lists describes everything you could ever hope for or imagine in your next job, whether it is having loads of responsibility and authority or almost none.

Write down your desired amount of travel, the salary and bonus structure you want regardless of what the market currently dictates. Put down exactly what you want to be doing on a daily basis. Do not include any responsibilities that made you unhappy in the past, even if you know that it's likely you'll have to do them again.

Is your job located around the corner, within 10 miles, in your favorite part of the city, in another city or country? Write it down.  Four months of vacation?  No problem. Write it down. Remember, this is "Blue Sky." 

On to the next column, which you can title "WOULD LIKE." In this column, be a bit more realistic. Perhaps reduce the vacation time to six weeks and place your ideal job in a city where such jobs actually exist. If your new interest is entrepreneurial, quantify a scenario for getting your business up and running and the income you would like to see in your first six months, first year or two years. 

This column of qualities isn't Blue Sky, but it is potentially doable. Want your commute to be under an hour? Want the staffers in your department to be incredibly upbeat, cooperative and open to your new ideas, without a back stabber or slacker in the bunch? Write it down. 

By now you should be feeling good, perhaps even a touch elated.  You can see yourself working. You can see the job, the location and the atmosphere. Now, while I hate to ask you to do it, make a third column and title this one "MUST HAVE."

For this column get down to the very basics of what you must have to take the job and to be reasonably happy. Put down a salary—your magic number. How much is your minimum? It should be more than you'll have to pay the babysitter when you go back to work for sure, but maybe less than you made in your last job, all things considered.

 You can travel up to 35 percent but not more and you refuse to go back to ____________ (fill in the blank with your most despised business destination – Peoria? Cairo? Burbank? What about your office?  Can you handle driving to Jersey? Commuting to Westport? Downtown Manhattan? Set your limits. 

Can't handle 12 hour days again or don't want to? Can you work the occasional—but sometimes brutal—overtime hours if necessary? 

Write it down.

What kind of people can you work with and work for? Pen to paper—all of it. Putting these limits on paper may seem negative  after all the "BLUE SKY" and "WOULD LIKE" qualities but it's essential to the process. 

Read your list, think about it long and hard and then edit. Do it again a couple days later and then again a week or so after that. Heck, we're not even at Christmas yet. Once you have the three lists where you want them, re-read and re-read with particular attention to "WOULD LIKE" and "MUST HAVE" or "MUST NOT HAVE," if that's what your third list more closely resembles. 

You've created reasonable expectations—a clear picture of what really matters to you and what doesn't. Don't put that list away. Keep it with you every day, continue to edit and focus on those characteristics that make your heart flutter, electrify your mind and energize your soul. Now, visualize your next job. Is your picture a bit clearer than when you started? I expect it is. 

If you are still imagining yourself in pinstripes, the kind one wears with a cup, you may need to revisit my last column. If you feel empowered and energized, then get thee to LinkedIn and read the trade magazines and newsletters for whatever field you are returning to or considering to enter and make a list of places you'd like to work and jobs you'd like to have. Find the people who do these jobs and/or hire these jobs and make a list of those names. Find their phone numbers. Yes, phone. Emails are easy to ignore.  Make contact and set up informational interviews, some before the end of the year if you can. 

Refer to your lists whenever you need to be reminded of who you are, what you desire and deserve, and what is possible. Sometimes focusing on a bunch of "would like" tempered with some "must have" is just enough to get you a sufficient amount of both. 

Mindy Gibson has worked in broadcast media through most of her career, primarily as a television programming executive launching three networks, including Telemundo and USA Network's cable channels in Latin America and Brazil.  Her column, Career Interrupted, will appear twice a month on Rye Patch.