I started writing this blog post in November when I was made redundant; it had never happened to me before and came as quite a shock. I am so glad I held off to post this because so many incredible things have happened since. This is why I wanted to talk about adapting to the unknown and what to do when you aren’t in control (and really when are you ever in control?).
When I was made redundant, my first emotions were embarrassment and humiliation. There was a little voice in my head saying “you weren’t good enough”, even though this wasn’t the reality (redundancy is more on how the company is performing, not your performance), I went straight to the negative emotions – but hey that’s being human!
Something has happened to you that you weren’t expecting, and you didn’t have a game plan, of course your initial reaction is to be upset! However, after feeling those emotions (it is so important to feel those feelings) it was time for me to do the things that help me get back on track; go for walks, talk to my partner/family about what happened, and plan my next steps.
Here were my questions to myself:
I am afraid of the unknown but what if it’s better than I ever expected?
What if, in a couple of weeks, I feel so much happier with what I’m doing?
I changed my perspective on this event from something that I didn’t plan or want to happen to something that was needed for me to grow. I wrote down the following affirmations every day to help reduce the worry and get me excited for the future:
“YOU HAVE GOT THIS”
“LIFE HAPPENS FOR ME NOT TO ME”
“GOOD THINGS ARE COMING”
“I’M ALWAYS DESERVING AND WORTHY JUST AS I AM”
I set a goal on how many jobs I would apply for each day and also looked at this as an opportunity to do things I was always ‘too busy’ for when I was working. I went to the beach, went for long walks, caught up on TV shows and enjoyed more time with my partner.
Even in hard times, I needed to look at the positives and start to think “how can this work for me?”. I want life to happen FOR me not TO me. I ended up getting a job that was a lot more convenient, less stressful and gave me more space to work on my coaching.
It also meant I was able to go back home for Christmas!
Believe in faith not fear. Life is always out of your control; it’s how you respond to it that matters. Instead of spending weeks worrying about getting a job and what would happen, I went with the flow, I got used to adapting to the unknown, and things worked out for the better!
Georgie xx
