March 2009

March 13th - A Very Dark "Friday the 13th"

I was informed  on the morning of Friday the 13th that it would be my last day of employment with a company I've been with since 1995. A quick and impersonal speaker phone call from a manager, and the blow had been dealt to me and all of the others who got the ax in the first of 3 rounds of layoffs.  I guess you could say that the giant wave that is our national recession finally hit home and it washed me out to the sea of the unemployed.

So began my reaction to getting the axe:  A 3 day freak-out where I got out all my anger and frustrations.  There were a few moments of mumbling and walking in circles.  Some fleeting instances of sympathy for everyone who's ever "gone postal".  Over a decades worth of corporate angst purging forth.  But it didn't take long after that to start to make a few positive realizations:

- the company had been less than impressive for many years
- that to achieve more in life, there will always be times of surviving outside your comfort zone
- optimism is a powerful conduit for good fortune

After about a week, a transformation happened that I didn't expect to be so monumental:  I became more happy than I'd been in a very long time. Reports back from the company were not good. Terrified employees awaited news about the next two rounds of layoffs. Lower than low morale seeping everywhere. Bizarre and secretive moves being made by management.  And I was swimming in LIBERATION from that entire toxic work environment.

Where I had been miserable just a week before, I was now was jubilant.   Ahhh - Life is good, and things don't seem so bad after all.

March 14 2009 - A Lucky Break

So for the first weeks after being laid off, life isn't that much different.  I was lucky enough to get a fairly lengthy side job from a client that I've  been working with for a long while.   This job has been quite satisfying compared to the work I'd been doing for the old company.  There are some new and invigorating challenges to be met  - and suddenly I've go new energy and enthusiasm moving forward.

I was starting to get some emails from family consoling me of my new situation.  My dad sent me an email about him starting his own business and how he had wished he had made the move sooner.   I felt the same way now.  Too bad I didn't get out of my dead-end job sooner.  But I got a little complacent. A little lazy.  A little too comfortable in some respects - and my situation dragged on.  Sometimes being jolted out of your working slumber is a stroke of good luck.

This reminds me of two excellent quotes from Dan Millman:

"Life's gifts come carefully wrapped in difficulties and demands."

&

"Any positive change entails a period of discomfort as we rise from one level to the next."