5 tips if you've recently lost your job

[00:00:00] Hi, this Aneta. Thanks for joining me for the solo episode. Today's episode is Five Things to Do if You've Recently Lost Your Job, and I know that this year many individuals. Were asked to leave a role that maybe they were in for a very long period of time, often without it being their own choice or decision, or asked to maybe do an early retirement and I really wanted to come on and share some tips that I have seen to be very effective for folks that are going through this transition right now. It is such a hard thing to go through, especially if it's not your own decision, because our roles, our career, and our titles, are so tied to our identity.

[00:00:46] If you think about it, it's the way we introduce ourselves when we are meeting people for the first time. It's what we write on our LinkedIn profile. It's how we view ourselves. It's tied to our identity and our routines and schedules and so much more. So, it definitely is a meaningful moment in our life. But I wanted to share five tips that hopefully can help you during this time. And the first one is, to give yourself time to rest and reset your nervousness. Chances are you're tired. You might be feeling a little burned out, you might be exhausted, or maybe even a little bit shocked. What I want to say is, I know the instinct and the fear is to jump in and make the quickest decision to update your profile, to do all of those things.

[00:01:39] And there is time for it. Just give yourself a moment, a little bit of grace, a little bit of, uh, permission to pause and to just allow yourself to grieve, which is definitely real. And also just tap into your body and to. What can I be doing for myself to be optimally healthy at this time and give myself that gift? Number two is establishing a routine. So if you worked full-time, and I remember being in the corporate world, my calendar from the time I woke up until evening, many days was packed. With meetings, things that I didn't necessarily put on my calendar. It was an agenda from the company, from my coworkers, whatever it is, obligations during the day and evening.

[00:02:30] And guess what? That first day after you're no longer there, your calendar is going to be empty. And it's a brand-new calendar, right? It's not the work calendar, it's yours, and it's going to feel really strange, and it might actually incite a little bit of panic and anxiety. And so the important thing to do is to say what are the routines that you want to establish? It is important to establish routines, and I would say start with a morning routine. It's a great time to set your intention to decide that today's going to be a great day to decide how you are going to show up for yourself and give yourself the gift of easing into your day. You don't have to rush to make a meeting, to be in the office to avoid rush hour traffic or any of those things.

[00:03:17] Enjoy your cup of coffee. Spend some time reflecting. Think about the things that are going to be important for you today. Think about the things you want to do for yourself, and then just ease into your morning and ease into your day. Maybe one of the things you add to your routine is a workout routine. Maybe it's just physical movement. You decide that you want to move, move your body every single. To boost your immune system to feel good. There are so many benefits to working out, and especially now that the weather's changing, you can do this outside. So many great ideas come to us when we are, just allow ourselves to be relaxed and to really feel good.

[00:04:00] Work on getting better sleep. Chances are, uh, if you're like one-third of Americans, you are not getting adequate sleep. And so now is a really great time. I say sleep is the most important pillar to tackle first. If we are burned out or if we are experiencing, um, hormones that are dysregulated or the nervous system is a little rigid, um, sleep is a wonderful thing to be able to focus on so start to establish those routines, decide when you want to go to sleep. Start to create those routines in the evenings to wind down, to ease into it. You're not working hopefully until late in the evening. So give yourself that gift and really aim for seven to nine hours. Everything is better when we get to sleep. Our mind is able to think better. Our memories improved, and our emotions are better regulated. Our organs get to recover. Um, our hormones get to regulate, our metabolism gets to regulate. Really focus on sleep and take your time to do that. Number three is to get creative. All of us are creative beings. And we've always been creative.

[00:05:11] Think of little kids and just, you know, they approach this world with a child-like wonder and curiosity. And as we age and we become adults, many of us, not everyone, lose touch with the creative side of us, or we don't feel that it's a necessity because there are so many other things that occupy our time. But now that you have a little bit of time, ask yourself, what are those hobbies that you used to enjoy? Can you pick that up? Or is there something you've always wanted to try and now is a wonderful time to go do it? Is there an exercise you want to do? Maybe you want to sign up for yoga or Pilates? Maybe you want to start boxing. I don't know what it is. Could be anything. Maybe you want to take an art class. Just allow yourself to think through what are the things that would really bring you some joy right now. Get creative. Our minds love thinking of things when they are relaxed, so don't be surprised if you actually are able to do a lot of wonderful thinking when you just allow yourself to be creative and not focus on specific tasks.

[00:06:17] Number four, work out your fears and surround yourself with positive people. Chances are there are some fears that might be coming up about when you're going to find your new role. Will you start a new business? What does that look like? And our instinct is to start networking and do some business development and reach out to people. And it's great to be able to do all those things however, Make sure that the people that you are talking to are not going to project their fears onto you. There are people who are going to say, are you okay? Do you know what you're doing next? I heard this. Have you figured this out? And all well-intentioned and well-meaning.

[00:06:59] However, they might actually start to instigate in you some of the fears that you already have that you're working through. So really spend some time identifying your own fears. And then as you're working with people, surround yourself with the people who are so supportive and who are going to help you on your process and not necessarily insight more, um, worries or anxious thoughts. Go towards the. And take your time and dream again. That's a final tip. The fifth one is really taking your time and dreaming again. Many of us like creativity, have lost our ability to dream, to think about what we want, because so much of our life was already decided for us. And I want you to ask yourself these questions, even if you don't believe them to be true.

[00:07:45] What if this is the best gift that has been given to you? What if I've been ignoring signs that it's time for a change, and the universe finally gave me that extra nudge to take action? Whether you believe this to be true or not, let's just pretend because we're here at this moment. I spent a lot of time with my coaching clients, helping them to dream again and helping them to think through what this next stage and what this next chapter could look like to make it the best we can go through identifying strengths, passions, drivers of energy, ways to give back to add service, the legacy you want to build in this life, how many hours you want to work in a week, and what you want your life to look like in the next one to three, five, and 10 years. It's so important to be able to do the visioning and then create ideas to test.

[00:08:43] Life is experiential. It is not supposed to be an intellectual exercise. We cannot just think ourselves to the next thing. We actually have to test and learn some things and follow the energy and see what feels right. I know it's a little counterintuitive cuz it's not necessarily the way we always do things, but during this test-and-learn process, there is no failure. It's just information. If you love something, That's awesome. We could say, let's try more of that or try something similar, or find the people that can help us explore that. If you don't like something and you try it, that's great information too. We don't need to pursue that during the test and learn the process, you are going to learn so much about yourself.

[00:09:28] You're going to grow. You are going to become more courageous. Work through some limiting beliefs, and probably push through some comfort. And if you're open to it, you may surprise yourself and find that there are things you want to do that make no sense. You would never have put it if this was an intellectual exercise, you never would've put it down on paper. But it's something, it's an idea. A little nudge, that whisper that's telling you, maybe look into this, and guess what? You don't have to do just one thing. We are multifaceted, multi-passionate individuals, and I think one of the biggest lies that we've been told is that there's one answer. There's one thing we get to do during our working years, and then everything else becomes a hobby after we retire and I can.

[00:10:18] That's not true. It can be a yes. And so if you want to do something that is completely different, that is a personal passion of yours, explore it and you can also try some new things. It's a wonderful time if we allow it to be a time of experiments. So the final thing that I would say to you is to get some help. If the company that you worked for has not provided you with transition services, or maybe you need a little extra help, I would love to work with you. I'd love working with my clients and helping them really design the life they want to live. And whether it happened at your choice or not, there are some really important things that we can do right now. So schedule a coaching consultation with me. We can work. Any of these five tips and start there and then identify if you'd like to go further, I am here to help you. And, um, just wanted to say, let's really focus on maybe making this the next best chapter of our lives. It really can be. Have an amazing day.