Here is an update on my friend that lost her job. Her husband makes about $200,000 a year, so, no, I didn't feel that sorry for her when she lost her job. She lives in a very nice home, drives a very nice vehicle and wears nice clothes and can afford an Ivy League school for her child. She is in no danger of losing any of the above. The worst that could happen, she will have to fire the housekeeper and clean her own floors. ( I feel sorry for the housekeeper.)
Her job was a professional sales person in the mortgage industry. As you are probably aware that field has pretty much run it's course lately. In order to find another job like the one she had...gonna be tough, if not impossible.
However, all of the above does not keep her from the feeling of failure. Even though I don't feel sorry for her in the sense that she will not lose her home etc. I do feel for her in the sense that she has lost her sense of identity. Her job has defined her for several years, as mine did me. I am sure a lot of you that have worked in the same field for many years and now find yourselves displaced can relate. Initially it sucks to redefine yourself. But then something else takes over...
Hope.
Hope and new possibilities, it depends on the person and your circumstances as to how long it will take you. For me, it took about a year. For her, it won't take so long. But the realization that she will have to redefine herself will be brutal, it always is isn't it? It takes a while to become comfortable in any new role you assume, but a new route which you may not have chosen... ouch. It's hard, make no mistake about it.
But here is what I say to her and all of you that find yourself in this situation...this too shall pass. When the feeling of failure passes and you realize it is really a new opportunity to redefine yourself in a new and better way, you will embrace the possibilities. It does not happen overnight, but it does happen.
Either you wake up one morning with a new vision and new hope, or it just "falls in your lap". However it happens, a new you sprouts. Full of new promise and new hopes.
It feels good to be new. Let it happen...
Malicious Extrapolation
9 years ago
Posts
hmm.. this too shall pass, sounds like something I might say. You can look at losing a job as a bad thing, or you can look at it as a good thing.
ReplyDeleteIt gives a person a chance to redifine themselves and to go in a different direction, perhaps one they always yearned to but didn't even know they did because they were so busy convincing themselves they were happy before.
As the book Illusions says "what would you do the master said if God looked at you and said, "I command you to be happy in this lifetime"? In the path of our happiness shall we find the learning we have chosen for this lifetime."
As a person who has had 5 totally separate careers (at least) in the last 24 years with complete redefinment of self with each, I would tell P to see this a beautiful opportunity rather than a bad thing.
After all, as you said, she doesn't have to worry financially. We should all have the opportunity she has been given.