“We’re going to have to let you go,” they tell you and your heart skips a beat.
You immediately think of all the bills you have and the debt you’re in and you imagine being kicked out onto the street and living on the sidewalk.
You rush home in tears, frantically grabbing your laptop to polish up your resume so that you can begin your job search.
Before you do that- WAIT!
You were fired from your job, you weren’t sentenced to the death penalty. Your life is not over. In fact, this is a new beginning.
Consider this:
You were fired from your job and you probably didn’t like working there anyway or else you would have been performing so well that they would have considered it a truly significant loss to let you go.
You may have been secretly harboring a desire to move forward in life in a new direction. Wishes DO come true and sometimes these type of wishes will mean you have to lose what you have to gain what you really want.
Everything in life is only for a season. You did not fail. Your season at that particular place of employment is now over. You have learned the lessons that you needed to learn and you are free to go and grow.
You need a break. Rushing out and trying to frantically find another job will not work. Sit still. Take a few days with no action and listen to your intuition. Search your heart. You have freedom now, you can write the next story of your life with your next decision. Where do you really want to be?
You may be eligible for unemployment. While this source of income isn’t permanent or nearly enough to take care of all of your bills, you are savvy enough to make it work while it lasts.
It is important to understand that your peace of mind precedes your peace in life. Stability is an illusion. Your worth is not tied to what you own or any income a job could offer. Your peace of mind and faith will lead you toward your new direction.
What you must do:
Apply for unemployment.
Be still.
Listen to your intuition. What is it saying? What have you been wanting to do that your job held you back from doing? Recognize it. Make a plan. Go do it.
Get excited! You have a whole new leg of your journey ahead of you. No, you have not failed. No, you have not lost your purpose. No, you will not be in this place for the rest of your life. No, you are not a loser.
You lost your job. It’s a JOB. Millions of people have jobs. There are more opportunities for you out there. While you calmly search for your next opportunity, open your inner ears to hear your direction and begin to do the things that you LOVE to do.
You can’t rush the process, you can only be diligent with your efforts. You will not lose. Even if you have to move out of your current residence this will only open the door for a new adventure.
You are more than loved and more than capable of figuring out your next step. Your pen is poised. You have what it takes to succeed.
In the meantime, enjoy yourself. Sleep in. Go to the beach to watch the sunrise. Take a trip. Go have a drink in the middle of the week. Spend time with your family. Have everyone take a day off and enjoy a 3 day weekend together.
It is through enjoying the pleasures of life that you maintain a calm countenance that will allow you to hear your inner guidance whisper that necessary steps to find your way.
Relax.
Everything is taken care of.
This was planned.
This has purpose.
You better go out and enjoy this time because when your next opportunity comes for work, you are going to go at it with much more intensity than you’ve ever done before and you may not get another break like this for YEARS.
Rest up, your REAL life work is just around the corner.
***For EXTRA INSPIRATION- check out The Rebuild Your Life Project, an empowerment outreach that teaches women how to survive their biggest failures. There is even a video documentary that you can watch HERE.
Great article and excellent advice!
One very important thing is to realize that your office friendships will likely not survive. Once you’re no longer part of the company, you have nothing in common with your former colleagues. Don’t expect them to keep in touch, especially if they have to take on your former duties for no extra pay. I was devastated when none of my former colleagues, some of whom I had worked with for years, called to see if I was okay.
Get professional counseling to help you over the first few weeks and months. Friends and family will be sympathetic, but sooner than you might think they’ll get tired of hearing all the what-ifs and if-onlies that come with losing a job. A counselor can help you put things in perspective so you can begin to move on.
I grieved the loss of my brand-new computer! It arrived the morning of the day I was fired.
I’d always wanted to learn how to knit, so I signed up for classes. It was so nice being with strangers who didn’t know I had been fired.
I began having “office dreams,” where my former boss called and begged me to come back because they couldn’t get along without me. In reality, I knew that would never happen.
Counseling helped me deal with all these issues and much more.
im im going through this right now and everything said in this article is true. although i was not eligible for unemployment, i still try to be positive. thanks for writing this article!
An excellent article, so truthful it is scary and I am going to take all the advice. Kudos to the author
All of these articles have saved me a lot of headahces.