Yes, you will worry about how you will pay the bills, if you will get another job, and when the new job will come. You will also have the opportunity to spend enough time with your family, friends, and yourself. You will have time to do all the things you wished you had time for when you were working. You can go to the gym, get outside more, and use the time to recheck your life and your career. (Yes, this is a good thing.)
So How Do You Make Peace With What Just Happened To You And Create A New Future?
Here are seven Tips for You:
1. Recognize That Losing Your Job Was Not Your Fault:
Yes, there is some relief realizing that the inevitable has finally happened vs. the waiting to see if you will go next. But there is still a little part deep inside you that wonders if it was your fault. Maybe if you worked harder, then this would not have happened. Maybe if you worked weekends, evenings, etc, it would have been someone else that was cut. All these thoughts drain your spirit and take away from the contributions you made when you were there. Your company was not doing well. They had to cut costs, and you were one of the people they cut. This is all there is to it. Period. Stop making it mean something more.
2. Decide What is Important to You:
You probably have put YOU on hold for years as you have been spending all your time figuring out how to mold yourself to be someone else. You worried about what your boss may thought of you, what his or her boss thought of you, and what your co-workers thought of you. You spent many hours trying to calm down or figure out what to do with a co-worker or boss that was driving you crazy. All of this is gone (if only temporarily) and now you get to determine what is important to you. What makes you happy? What gets you excited? All these are questions that you can answer because you have been given the gift of time to do so.
3. Recognize That the Time Off Is A Blessing:
Things in life happen for a reason. There was some intention for you to stop and reassess how you have been living your life at this point. Why do you think this occurred now? Were you working too hard? Were you neglecting yourself? Was your family screaming for you to spend more time with them? Now is the time to see if your former lifestyle will fit your future one. Use the time wisely, because a chance like this one may never come again.
4. Decide What You Will Do Next:
Will you stay in the same career? Will you do something different? Will you start your own business? Or, will you decide to scale down your lifestyle so you can stretch out the time before you go back to work? There is no right or wrong choice, only what calls to you. Trust your instinct. The answer is inside you. It is up to you if you will take the time to listen.
5. Put An Action Plan In Place:
Now that you have free time, how will you use it as productive as it can be? How many resumes will you send out each week? How many hours each day will you spend searching for jobs online and in the paper? How may people will you talk to, and how e-mails will you send out? Your job search does not have to consume you, but having a daily plan, will keep you from sitting in front of the TV saying, ''I really should be looking for another job.''
6. Get Support:
Enlist the help of a friend, spouse, coach, colleague, etc. Someone who will pay attention and support you through this transitional period in your life. Looking for a job can be frustrating, time consuming, and disappointing. Remember that you do not have to do it alone.
7. Reward Yourself:
Yes, the final reward is finding a new job, but there are milestones that can be rewarded along the way. Sent your resume to five employers? Reward. Went on one job interview this week? Reward. When you look back, you will know that you are not the same person you were before this happened. And, you will smile to yourself because you know that this is a good thing.
