Coping with job loss means more than just usual “stress management tips.” You know that crap: breath deep, take a walk, mediate. Yeah. And that does NOTHING for the stress of cash flow, rejection, and family pressures. Coping with job loss means more than being calm internally. It means taking control of the external and attacking this new horrible stress.
Here are 5 ways to cope with the stress of job loss that regular stress management types won’t tell you about:
1. Plan your job search like it’s a campaign. You are not in this alone, nut no one else is out of YOUR job. Attack your job search like it’s the enemy. Lay out a detailed plan of attack, including creative places to look for jobs.
2. Stay in shape. Letting your health go will reflect when you are in job interviews. Looking despondent, desparate, and unhealthy is not what “dress for success” means. You need to fight the effects of stress on the body.
3. Meditate. But didn’t I put it down up there? Yes, if that is all you do. But meditating on your strengths, on your plan of attack, on turning job loss into the next step in your growth – yeah, that meditation is fine.
4. Time and goal management. It is very easy, when you are laid off, to lose your schedule. Approach this period as “my job is now to find a job.” Plan your day just like when you had your last job. WORK at getting work.
5. Keep in touch with people. Network and learn what places are hiring. Find out which of your friends is taking this time ot open a business and get in on the ground floor. Use your family and friends to keep your spirits up.
Surviving job loss can be approached as the end of your life, or as the stepping stone to a new and better job or career. I have been laid off twice. The first time, the company just folded up. It led me to 2 new jobs, then a new career as a lawyer. The second time, it was an opportunity to move back to a place my family was more confortable, and to a position managing several offices. In this position, I have discovered a passion of developing young talent.
So job loss can be a positive thing. The period of job loss sucks. No money. Stress from family. But coping with job loss can make all the difference.
Here are 3 products I have developed to help you:
Job Loss Judo – a manual to help you attack job loss like a judo master.
Stress Judo – a training program to turn stress into OPPORTUNITIES, whether job loss stress, workplace stress, family stress – whatever. You will WELCOME stress.
Father’s Rights Library – if you are a father paying child support or visiting the kids that mom has custody of, these aggressive manuals might help you in court or to use discovery to turn her lies back on her.