The Positive Side Effects of Losing Your Job

 We have faced challenges the last two years we never ever thought we would face. The power to choose to be vaccinated or not is a very hot topic, no matter your position. Many, even doctors, have chosen to stand on their moral conscience and fight for theirs and your constitutional right to choose. Some have won the fight, and some have lost, leaving them with no income for their family. This can be a potentially fatal condition for you financially, or is it?

 You may have lost your job through politics, health issues, down-sizing, redundancy, or any other reason. Or, you’re under threat to lose your job, your first thought is to run from blind panic to a state of anger, desperation, and all the understandably jarring emotions in that come with those feelings, especially if you have a family and all the commitments that go with that.

 It’s especially frightening if you’ve been in a position at a job for a long time and assumed that you would retire. When it’s the only job you’ve ever known, finding out that your job is gone can be emotionally, financially devastating and contribute to an onslaught of physical illnesses.

 Even if it’s a job that you’ve tolerated for years, when you no longer have it, you suddenly forget all the things you didn’t like about working there and remember only the good. It’s human nature. We tend to take for granted what we DO have, than find the value in contentment.

 Many find their identity in what they do rather than from who they are at the root of their soul. Feelings of loss will spiral into a free-fall; create feelings of insecurity and self-doubt. This in turn can cause a huge loss in self-confidence at a time when you need it the most.

 Rather than block out those feelings, acknowledge them, embrace them, and then let them go. They will not serve you in moving forward. The avoidance of feelings will only create depression and compromise of healthy boundaries for yourself and others.

 In Traditional Chinese Medicine, emotions are store within vital organs. The direct link between the emotion and the health of your organs is distinct. Even the PMC – US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health recognized the correlation between emotion and health. Some positive emotions are stored: happiness with the heart, surprise with the heart and the gallbladder, thoughtfulness with the heart and spleen, but also negative emotions: anger with the liver, sadness with the heart and lungs, fear with the kidneys and the heart and anxiety with the heart and the lungs, as an example.

 On the rational side, many layoffs are activated by accountants adhering to budget cuts. They have never met you and don’t you. They have no idea who you are, what your skills are, what your true worth is, or how your family will suffer from your job loss. They are simply following through in the job they are hired for.

But Why Me?

The accountants are simply moving numbers from one column to another on the balance sheet to keep the company solvent and in business. So, avoid wasting your time trying to figure out ‘why me.’ You are just a number to them and there’s no answer to that question.

Granted, it might be tough for you to make sense of the situation. But sooner or later, you know you have to get past it, over it, or around it, so why not make it sooner?  Later has no merit at all, does it? Keeping a proactive mind-set is so important for your health and those you love.

Here’s the truth. Losing a job is part of modern society. We live in a rapidly changing world, and this is just another kind of change, and change is the only constant we can truly expect. But if you can see change as an opportunity to learn something new and grow, you will see the positive side of this coin.

Look around you. Everyone you know that has a job has come from some other workplace. And most of them ended up with a better job after their move! You can too! Becoming creative in reinventing yourself for the better is the best outlook you can have.

Regardless of what happens to you, it’s what you do about what has happened to you that’s important.

So, although you didn’t anticipate this change, you can look at it as an opportunity to rethink, reset, adjust, and get a clear idea of not only what is possible for you, but what could also change your life for the better.

Have you ever had thoughts about a career change or maybe even starting your own business? It just might be the perfect time to consider options. It could be so much easier to make such decisions now that your old job isn’t holding you back from going after what you truly desire. Plus, you will have more of a “why” behind you to generate determination and urgency and prevent complacency and procrastination. 

Would There be a More Perfect Time?

 Think about it. Could there be a more perfect time to re-define what you want to do with your life and get clear on what’s important to you?

 Follow these steps to plan your perfect direction:

1. Decide what you want to avoid. An easy place to start is with what you DON’T want, and then look at the opposite. Put a contingency plan into place.
   

●      For example, if you totally loathe commuting, look at a role where you could work from home. Tens of thousands of people already do, why not you? What would that mean as far as time you always wanted to free up for that extra hour of sleep or even time for your family?

2. What about your chosen field of expertise? If you’re tired of that kind of work, maybe you could look at something completely different.
   

●      Find free courses on the internet for thousands of different skill sets. Sign up for as many as you need to get an understanding of what’s out there that just might be a perfect fit for you.

3. Explore new ideas using your current interests. Consider anything and everything that gets your attention. Start paying close attention to what interests you and what fascinates you. There could be something within arms-reach that you’ve had an interest in for some time. For example:
   

●      If you go to the bookstore, what sections do you visit most often?

●      If you’re channel surfing on the TV, what kind of programs do you stop at most often?

●      If you’re scrolling social media, what stories do you read the most and/or comment on the most?

Start a personal thought journal and make copious notes for a week or more. Then go back and review. Notice where the commonalities are and make a decision to follow up on what gets your attention the most.

You may find a fascinating new direction to pursue!

Some people have found that losing their job was the very best thing that could have happened to them. Why not you?