Lost your job? How'd you get so lucky?

“I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life. I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it.- Steve Jobs -

Been layed off or fired from your job? Congratulations, your life is going to take a turn for the better. Oh, I know what you’re thinking….”yeah right, you have no idea how miserable losing my job has made my life!” Well, maybe I do. Maybe your heart has been racing a little lately, maybe you’re suffering stress headaches and you can’t sleep at night. Maybe you’ve scoured the newspapers and spent hours on the internet in search of a new job. Yeah, you’ve probably submitted so many resumes that you’ve lost count and most of the time you haven’t even gotten a response from a prospective employer. I’ll bet there are some days that you’re so mad you could break a brick with your bare hands without any karate training. You’re probably wondering if you’ll have to take the next job that comes along no matter what it is and you’ve got a pit in your stomach just thinking about it. As the days go by, even getting out of bed in the morning isn’t an easy thing to do. Yeah, maybe I do know a little of how you might be feeling these days. I’ve been there.

Finding a job isn’t easy in today’s economy to say the least. Competition for good paying jobs is fierce. You’ve got to find a way to push open company doors. I know, it’s hard to find the strength you need to do it. When you’re thinking “why me? why now?”, remember the words of George Harrison, “all things must pass”.  To say it another way, “nothing lasts forever, be it good or bad”. If you’re feeling beat up because you’ve lost your job, make today the day that you change that way of thinking. Believe it or not, change is good. I didn’t say easy, I said it’s good. Circumstances shape our character and can turn us into something much better than we were before, if we’re willing to ride out the storm.

The spirit of a survivor is that they force themselves to do whatever it takes. The very essence of our existence is built upon our basic need to survive. Our basic physical needs of food, water, and shelter keep our bodies alive but I’ve discovered that it is the emotional support that we get from others that gives us the oomph we need to deal with stress. So, when you’re feeling hopeless about finding a job and making ends meet, talk to other people about it. Everyone has either been through the stress of job loss and overcome it at one time or knows someone who has. Others can and will help you through it but only if you ask for it. As an extremely self reliant individual, asking for someone else’s help was one of the most difficult things for me to do. Asking for the help of others wasn’t an idea that I was comfortable with at all. But, when losing my job had me hanging on to the knot on the end of my virtual rope, I was forced to reach up to grab the hands of the friends and family who I knew I could depend on. In retrospect, reaching out to ask for help from people who care about me was absolutely necessary for my survival.

Once you’ve been able to let out all of your pent-up frustrations about your job loss, put down the tissues and for heaven’s sake put down the bricks, and get ready to work. Roll up those shirt sleeves. Just because you’re not cashing a paycheck, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have any work to do. In reality, you’ve got lots of work to do. You’ve worked hard for many years to attain success in the work world and that has benefitted the companies you’ve worked for. It’s time now to start working for your own benefit. Today is the day to develop your game plan or change a game plan that hasn’t worked for you.

Losing a job may just turn out to be the best thing that ever happens to you. It gives you time to reflect on the what, why, how, and when of the jobs that you’ve held. It makes you think about which direction you want to take now. It presents you with a new set of opportunities that you might never have considered if you were still working for the company that you worked for. It is a time to say to yourself “I deserve better and I’m willing to do what it takes to engage in work that I love and I’ll do for a company that appreciates my efforts”. Or perhaps, you’ve reached that point in your life where you think “it’s time for me to start my own company”. In any case, why settle for anything but the best for yourself.

If your job searching isn’t working out, you might consider engaging the help of a recruiting company. Recruiters have long standing relationships with companies who are looking for candidates to fill their open positions. Recruiters typically get paid by the companies they find candidates for, not by you, the jobseeker. So, you’ve got nothing to lose by talking to a recruiter and letting them know the kind of job you’d like to get. Save yourself alot of time and headaches and let someone else work on your behalf for a change. This blog is sponsored by Search Logix Group out of Atlanta,GA but our company reach is international. If you’re an executive in logistics, supply chain, distribution, RFID, software sales, telecommunications, information technology, engineering, transportation, healthcare management, sales, marketing, medical devices and e-commerce, give us a call. We’ll help you find the opportunity you’ve been waiting for.

Life changes on us so quickly sometimes that it can leave us breathless. Losing a job can take us completely by surprise but it shouldn’t take away who we are or who we have the capability of becoming. If you’re going to live a long and successful life, the one thing you have to become comfortable with is change. Change is inevitable in life. Change is what moves people to reach farther than they’ve ever reached before. Change is, in the end, what is responsible for all progress among people and it spans every continent. If you’ve lost your job, welcome the change with open arms. It just may be the best thing that ever happens to you.

Words of wisdom from Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computer:

”Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Dawn Turner
Blog Management & Development
The SearchLogix Group