Getting laid off is no joke. Suddenly losing your source of income can create a lot of problems, especially if you have payments to make and debt to deal with. You may feel overwhelmed or hopeless about your situation. This doesn’t have to last. You can get back on your feet, and it can happen pretty quickly. Here are five steps to help you do this.
Take a Deep Breath
One of the most important things to remember is that you are going to be okay. While this may be a difficult period for you, it is not the end of the world, and you need to realize that. Panicking is just going to make the situation worse and make you feel more overwhelmed. It’s okay to be upset and worried, but don’t let that consume you. Take some time to process your feelings and then put that aside so you can move forward.
Figure Out What Happened
Getting laid off usually comes as a surprise. It can be shocking to have to deal with something like this, but until you know why, you won’t know how to move forward. If you were laid off because of staff cuts, then it probably wasn’t your fault, and you can use that information when applying for a new job. The best way to figure out what happened is to talk to your supervisor. Make sure you approach this conversation properly. If you are angry or accusatory, it isn’t going to go over well.
Consider Your Next Move
Now is a good time to consider what your actual career goals are. Sometimes, you are lucky enough to be right where you want to be. If you enjoy what you have been doing, there is no need to change, but it not, now might be a good time to reevaluate what you want to do with your life. If you are looking to change careers, you may need to go back to school. When considering educational options, look for something that will give you versatility. There are plenty of online options that are much cheaper and faster than a more traditional university that are just as good.
Use Your Network
Connect with professionals in your industry and other areas by attending industry events, seminars, and other events. Networking has been proven to be one of the most successful ways of getting a new job, so don’t discard this part. You should make sure that you are constantly networking, even if you aren’t at an event specifically for that. Networking doesn’t have to be super formal, just talk about your interests and what you would like to do with your career. It’s about getting to know people. While networking, don’t hesitate to help someone else out if you can. They will be more likely to return the favor.
Prepare for the Next Step
When getting ready for job interviews, you need to make sure you practice. Even if you were good at interviewing at one point, your skills have probably gotten a little rusty, and they won’t come back overnight. It may be a good idea to sit down with a friend or family member and have a mock interview. This can help you prepare for sticky questions, like explaining why you are looking for a job. Getting laid off isn’t necessarily a deal breaker, but it can be if you don’t explain it properly. Make sure you update your resume and cover letter as well.
It may take you a while to get there, but eventually, you will find another job, and things will become normal again. Until then, hang in there and trust that something good is coming your way.
Most people think of an intense fear or an uncontrollable worry when they think of anxious feelings, but everyone experiences this differently. We all get nervous from time to time. Feelings of fear, worry, or distress can be disrupting and even hinder us from daily life, but they don’t have to. When properly directed, being anxious can easily turn from a fear, into one of your strongest motivators. Keep reading if you’re interested in finding out three ways to make your nervousness work for you.
Stop Fighting It
When you feel a bout of anxious feelings coming on, don’t try and pretend it isn’t happening. In fact, by struggling against your fears and trying to fight off anxious feelings, you’ll only overwork yourself and make it harder to be productive. If you want to accept your feelings of anxiousness, the key is to identify and accept the triggers that cause it.
When you feel your heartbeat increasing or palms sweating, you’ll likely want to make these feelings go away as quickly as possible. Instead, accept these feelings for what they are and consider how you’ll utilize them. Anxious feelings are a physical and mental response to perceived danger or risk. Identify what you find risky in your environment and logically consider how you can navigate it. After all, you can’t use something to your advantage if you’re fighting it.
Anxiousness Is Energy
If your body were a car, then feelings of anxiousness would be a hyper-efficient fuel. The key to using this as your secret weapon is to stop stewing over what makes you anxious and start acting on those feelings instead. Thebeauty of feeling nervous is that it presents you with only two options: sit and become even more afraid of your thoughts, or act until it goes away. By letting it push you into action, you’ll quickly find it is one of the best workplace motivators out there. Be sure to act fast, or your anxiousness will build until it’s uncontrollable.
Control It
The key tocontrolling anxiousness is knowing when it’s out of balance. Minor issues like light sweating or nervous tapping might not affect you too much. When you feel yourself losing control, try discussing your feelings with a trusted mentor or even talking to a therapist to help calm yourself down. After identifying common triggers, try to form a planned offense. Repeat positive phrases to yourself before entering a situation which will make you nervous. Before performing or presenting, remind yourself of past successes and visualize a positive experience. Alternatively, lavender and rosedoTERRA essential oils have helped people to relax when they have anxious feelings, and you can find many other coping tricks and advice to help you control these feelings.
If you want to use your nervous feelings effectively, then you need recognize it for what it is, let it spur you into action, and be able to stop or control it. By using a few of the above strategies, you’ll be able to turn your anxious feelings from a hurdle into your own secret weapon.
In order to grow, we must view a comfort zone as a way station, rather than a destination.
Remaining in your comfort zone is somewhat like standing on that one stepping stone just because it feels good, but it can also bring progress to a halt. It limits your exposure to the stimulus that can inspire and feed creativity. Success means learning how to move through the intimidating spaces separating plateaus of achievement. A former instructor of mine, Dr. Bradford Keeney, used to speak of this space as a form of “lived tension”. Back then I had a hard time understanding the concept until I took a step back and allowed myself to stop defining “tension” as a bad thing and consider it as an experiential processor “a series of moments in time” not good nor bad. The amount of time a person chooses to stay in it is both optional and fluid. Taking daily actions with one or more of the following suggestions may help push your horizons far beyond their present positions, when and if you are of a mind too.
Increasing Knowledge
How we view the world is determined only by what we have learned over a lifetime. All of our senses are enriched by the information we have absorbed. Some say that the night skies are more beautiful when we can point out stars by name. Plants become more interesting when we learn what the Romans called them or the unique properties they hold. Strangers evolve into fascinating representatives of exotic cultures when we learn their language or open ourselves up to our differences not as comparisons but as opportunities. Interests blossom into careers when we stop trying to “keep up with the Jones’s” and start wanting to make a difference in the work we do. When you make a study and seek to make engaged self-education a daily habit, the entire world unfolds before you. No one ever succeded at work by staying within the boundaries of a comfort zone
Leaving the Beaten Path
The act of doing anything in an unfamiliar manner reaches up into the brain and moves things around. Old concepts are juggled, and new concepts are formed. The results prompt the mind to look at everything from a different angle. New ideas form. By not being able to do things reflexively, the brain awakens to a full state of alertness. What would usually go unnoticed is noticed and becomes lodged in memory. Try something new each day: Take the back door, eat peas with a knife, brush your teeth left-handed — anything to shake up your senses. It worked for me, when I taught at a local University, I was trying to reach students differently and noticed some growing research that indicated traditional seating could in fact limit learning, so I set out to explore other ways that would open them up. After the word “standing” popped out at me a few times, I took the hint. I had all the chairs removed and thought the whole class, with all of us standing up. What did I learn? When a student learns, then move, they smile, they gesture. The more focused they became on what I was sharing, the less it was a lecture to be memorized in between texts and facebook posts and the more it became an experience.
Service to Others
Donating your time and energies to a worthwhile cause can be as lucrative as a college degree. The knowledge gained from charitable efforts can be applied to just about any vocation. Learning how to assist others in a variety of circumstances easily translates into marketable skills. Showing a potential employer a resume that documents you as an enthusiastic and engaged volunteer in your chosen field increases your chances of getting hired. Regularly giving volunteer service helps you live knowing that you are helping to make the world better.
Physical Well-being
Just as the above suggestions require daily attention, so does the act of maintaining good health. Engaging in physical activity on a regular basis lifts the spirits and sharpens the mind. All of the body’s processes are benefited. Proper circulation and respiration help to keep the organs functioning at peak levels. A few minutes a day is all that is needed to optimize your physique and keep you ready for life’s surprises.
Time and Space
You can envision yourself on Earth in the early part of the 21st century. You can also envision yourself in a boundless universe consisting of billions of planets spinning through immeasurable time. Your imagination is the device that limits or expands your concepts of eternity and infinity. Against such fathomless reaches, why not supersize your dreams? If you are going to push the envelope, push it in a big way. Consider your path and get started. Leave the comfort, at least for a time, and head into the empty spaces where there is ample room to build your dreams.
“Realizing goals is, by design, a challenge. Everything needs to be stretched in order to reach them. Flex the brain to increase intelligence. Work the body to gain the required strength to stay the course. Tighten the spirit to acquire the needed fortitude. Use your mind to enforce daily actions until your body accepts them as habits. Build each day on the back of the preceding day until your foundation is so strong that stopping is no longer a temptation. Learning to live outside your comfort zone will lead you to achievements, creating “greater satisfaction, career advancement, and income growth” (WGU).
In my last few months, the body was a focal part of my posts as it often take the brunt of the wear and tear every day. I talked a lot about ways to cope with the good, the bad and now; the ugly.
Ugly is the one that always gets people at this time of the year; the dreaded ending of a relationship and navigating those changes. Even if you happen to be the one who initiates the change, it doesn’t mean it will be any easier in many cases.
But Instead of spending a lot of time with words this week, I happen to come across this infographic from HeyCrush.com. They do a great narration of the infographic so no need for me to rewrite it for you – instead
What is my body saying?
look at the infographic.
Make a list of which parts strike you as a “hmmm” and “ouch” or a “could I have caused that to someone“
Decide which if any make sense for you to explore further
The accident has happened and left you with an injury that has significantly altered your life. Sometimes you may feel immensely relieved and grateful to be alive, while sometimes you may feel that you are unable to cope and wish that you had died in the accident. Both of these emotions are normal after a traumatic event. At some point, you will have decisions to make on how to begin to live each day now as a different person, with new experiences and in many cases with a need for a new strategy that engages you to thrive. Thinking about the “tomorrows” can be overwhelming. Here are a few ways to maneuver and negotiate your next few months before staying “stuck” is the only safe place you have.
Take Care of Practical Matters
In the aftermath of a serious injury, you have to survive before you can thrive. Before you can regain control of your life, you must make sure your health, your finances, and your mobility are in working order. If you were injured as a result of someone else’s negligence, this part of the process includes concluding pending legal action. According to John Page, this process “seeks to protect victims who are harmed by the action or inaction of another person or entity.” Depending on the nature of your injury, restoring mobility may require special tools, equipment, or modifications to vehicles. At the very least, it will involve making adjustments to your lifestyle for some amount of time. There is a frustrating learning curve when re-entering daily life, but keep at it! You’ve got this.
You may also have to start thinking about what structural changes you need both at home or the workplace. Will you need special accommodations at work? This could include software, ergonomic desks or chairs, different equipment or access or even working to get permission to work remote more often. Don’t try to play it cool and minimize these workplace needs. The stronger you get, and the more structural support in place to quicker you go back to working towards getting your professional life back. You will also have to look at your living spaces. What changes will you need from home? This is a good time to go back and start that journal I mentioned in the last Engage post. Several flexible and adaptable journaling/planners work well. Two that I lean towards includes one I use from BestSelf Co. (Hardcover 8. 25 x 5. 5) and the InnerGuide Goal & Life Planner but in the end, you have to look at a bunch to find your best fit.
Remember “journalling” doesn’t have to be written – they can also be audio notes if you find you aren’t able to do the writing. Lots of apps and software exists that will allow you to “write” what you need. Products such as Nuance Dragon NaturallySpeaking Home 13.0, English or Dragon Professional Individual for Mac 6.0, English for Mac users are two of my preferred ones. The ios app, by Nuance – Dragon Anywhere, while expensive at $15 per month, is pretty handy as well for dictating on the go.
Avoid Isolating From Friends and Family
If your injury has seriously affected you cognitively or emotionally, chances are the last thing you want to deal with is other people. Their well-wishes and get-well-soon can be tiresome and downright infuriating, and then you feel even worse about yourself for losing patience with them. You need to operate by giving yourself plenty of grace and patience, and others as well. During this critical time, you need to proactively build yourself a support system – even if that’s the opposite of what your instincts are telling you. Include in your support system a family member, a friend, an accountability partner, and a coach or mentor. Seriously consider including a mental health professional and physical therapist, if appropriate. For some additional resources visit my post from early November that has some suggestions.
Another good reason to avoid isolation after an injury is the potential issues with pain medications. Many of these prescribed medications are helpful as a way to manage discomfort. “These are also substances that affect the same brain pathway that helps you make reasoned choices from your own will,” psychotherapist and addiction specialist Luke Adams of EmergeATCF.org has noted, “Developing a severe substance use disorder with them—dependence or addiction—is always a concern.” Adams suggests that it can be very helpful to arrange to have people to check in with or be around you to help you negotiate how you use these medications—people you care about and trust. “We are in the midst of a national crisis with opiate and opioid pain medications,” Adams offers that, “and using these medications safely and correctly is crucial.”
Accept that Injury was an experience and is a part of you.
An injury may change the way your body appears and functions, it may leave visible or invisible changes to you, a fact that is difficult to deal with. It is normal to wish that you could escape reality or try to ignore some of this new part of who you are. However, the first step in the process of getting your life back is to deeply and truly acknowledge the fact that you have an injury and that the recovery process will not be easy. This is extremely challenging, but it’s fundamental to success. As Jocko Willink says in Extreme Ownership, owning the moment “requires checking your ego and operating with a high degree of humility”. Admitting mistakes, taking ownership, and developing a plan to overcome challenges are integral to any successful team.” Even if your injury was legitimately not even a little bit your fault, taking ownership of your situation is the only way to move forward. Once you take ownership, the next crucial shift is to take command of your destiny.
The second step is to recognize that there are things that are out of your control and there are things that also fall within your control. For instance, your injury and the circumstances that led to it may not be in your control but your attitude towards the recovery process is within your control. Therefore making the conscious move to deliberately choose to remain positive and focused towards recovery is within your power to navigate.
Diet, exercise and meditate can help you post injury
Your injury may obviously constrain you from doing certain types of activities. However, it is important to ensure that you keep the body (and mind) active with some form of exercise if possible. Of course, it is important to consult your physician to find out which exercises are the most suitable for you. Lots of small steps to movement can equal one large shift later.
It is equally important to get out – get exposed to fresh air and sun, try to get out at least once a day for some much needed Vitamin D. Even if all it means is sitting on your front steps and watching the cars go by. Looking at your eating habits will also be helpful. Eating a healthy diet will give your body the nutrients it needs to recover faster and energize you throughout that process. So those extra calories you used to work off being more active may add up without your making some effort not to move. To stimulate your mind, try Meditating for at least 15 minutes a day while thinking of the things you are grateful for, however simple, will help you relax and control stress and depression. One of my favorites ios apps for this is called Headspace and serves as a daily trigger for mindfulness.
Look for new opportunities
When we experience misfortune, it is tempting to feel like our misfortune is a tragedy. It feels like the end of an old way of life. This is especially true of injuries that limit mobility or handicap your favorite physical activities for long periods of time. Jeff Davis defines insight as the ability to see past the obstacle and identify the hidden opportunity. In what ways can your injury be a new beginning? Are there habits you’ve been waiting to start, or stop? Are there talents and skills you’ve been wanting to cultivate? Are there dreams you’ve put on the back burner, waiting for a sign, or for your circumstances to change, or for an engraved invitation from God himself? Maybe it’s time to stop waiting.
Get a Mentor
The journey from tragedy to triumph is littered with pitfalls of self-doubt, self-pity, and self-focus. With all this self-ing going on, it’s important to have an outside voice who understands the habits of personal success and can help point you that direction. Let me be that mentor for you. Coming from a place that allows you the space to navigate the changes, yet help keep you grounded in reality is what I can offer. Sometimes the distance from those who know us best, also allows the a person to try on different perceptions for fit as a part of the learning experience.
Conclusion
Wellness is not only physical. It is also psychological, spiritual and emotional. If you take care of these other aspects of your life, you will be able to maintain a positive outlook despite your injury, and this will greatly assist in the process of taking back control of your life. Remember, you’ve made it this far and you have the power and strength within you to restore your life.
and the 
but in the end, you have to look at a bunch to find your best fit.
or 
for Mac users are two of my preferred ones. The ios app, by Nuance – 
An injury may change the way your body appears and functions, it may leave visible or invisible changes to you, a fact that is difficult to deal with. It is normal to wish that you could escape reality or try to ignore some of this new part of who you are. However, the first step in the process of getting your life back is to deeply and truly acknowledge the fact that you have an injury and that the recovery process will not be easy. This is extremely challenging, but it’s fundamental to success. As Jocko Willink says in 
The journey from tragedy to triumph is littered with pitfalls of self-doubt, self-pity, and self-focus. With all this self-ing going on, it’s important to have an outside voice who understands the habits of personal success and can help point you that direction.