Job Loss or Risk Of Job Loss

How To Respond to a Job Loss

I was recently (last week) trying to identify the number of job losses in the Washington DC metro area. I knew the numbers would be alarming and it was my hope to let people know they are not alone and discuss how to respond to a "miserable event" like a jobloss or if you are facing a potential job loss. It was interesting and frustrating that the reports have all turned to unemployment rates, initial jobless claims and over the last three months the references to the exact number of people unemployed locally have disappeared from media reports! My best guesstimate is that number is somewhere around 500,000!

I was able to find the national unemployment claims number and that number was a staggering 5,300,000 the largest number since 1967! And this of course does not cover people who are no longer eligible, never were eligible, on welfare, not collecting unemployment or underemployed.

These numbers seem really grim if one looks at it from that perspective. And so if you are faced with that challenge here today what i want to do is to help you shift your perspective. You have read this before, I know you have but do you really believe it? It is the principle that every single thing that happens in your life happens for a reason and the challenge is here to allow you to become more, be more to grow more. It is in our times of crisis that we have to be willing to ask the hard questions of our selves - not just respond with "knee-jerk" reactions. It takes a master - a person who rises above the typical action-reaction... stimulus-response.. fight-flight. One who rises above the situation and says OK this is a difficult time ... for me but I can look at this differently!

Every single breakthrough is almost always preceded by a breakdown. If you are in that position... maybe laid-off or lost your career or are struggling right now - I want you to ask yourself a couple of key questions. I know they work because they have served me tremendously in both great times and difficult times:

1. How does this job crisis serve me. I know ... the knee-jerk reaction is Glenn this doesn't "serve me" - this is terrible! Believe me I know that - seems almost impossible to fathom how it could serve you. It is the chance to take a deep breath and say - "OK - If I wanted it to serve me - how could it serve me" The answers are there if you ask yourself the question and look. Maybe you got laid-off from a job that had really outworn it's welcome. Maybe you did not love it and weren't passionate about it anyway. Maybe you can decide exactly what it is you love and go after that Maybe now you can open your perception finally to explore other avenues with unlimited potential. Maybe you have opportunity to become more disciplined, more focused. Maybe this now presents you the chance to start your own business and never again be faced with this situation. There are so many ways this can serve you if you focus on making it serve you...it being a gift... looking for the silver lining.


2. What can I learn from this? There are two kinds of people in this world - Winners and yes it begins with an L - Learners. Haven't you actually learned some of your greatest life lessons through your difficult times. Look back upon those difficult times earlier in your life - loss of a job, business closing, maybe a divorce. Look back on those times and maybe its a stretch but I guarantee you that in retrospect - you can say to yourself - "I learned so much, I grew so much, I became so much more - because of that difficult situation". Most people are good at being grateful and appreciative in retrospect - but the master is able to do that in the moment. Maybe I am learning to be more disciplined, maybe I am learning to be more focused, maybe I am learning to be more attentive to what's important, maybe I am learning to be more judicious in my decision-making..." There is a whole list - you can find them.
   
3. How can I use what I learned in this situation to move forward and create a better life in the future for myself and my family. How will use what I learned, how will I use this gift of what I have learned to become a better person in different aspects of my life!
   

I promise you if you focus diligently on the good, the learning and how to apply those learnings in times of difficult events in very short order you will begin to change, you will be more grateful than resentful, more appreciative for all things - big or small - rather than critical. Your thoughts-feelings-actions will begin to shift and very quickly you will begin to attract new results, new people, new opportunities and your life will change!

You have two choices in times of crisis - It is either the time to focus on this times as "the most miserable" in your life or it's the times that is "the most magical". It is your choice - Choose the magic - it's there to serve you if you accept it and apply it.