"Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to."- Alan Keightley
With Lehman Brothers filing for bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch and AIG barely squeaking by, I thought I'd drop a line to the employees of those companies who are now on the outs or are awaiting their fate.
Believe me, I know what it's like to be part of a collapsing organization. When you lose your job because the company you've worked for so hard collapses, it may seem as if your world is crashing all around you. It's worse when it happens because of the dishonesty, greed, and incompetence of the management, whose sole preoccupation in these last moments is saving their own hide.
But here's a small bit of a silver lining: Even though your job is over, your life isn't.
And here's an even bigger truth: You are now completely free to do whatever you want with your life.
I know that this very moment, this newly-gained freedom may be hard to appreciate. Right now, you are probably bemoaning the security of your corporate job, the salary, the stability and prestige that went with it, the health insurance, the retirement plan. Believe me, I understand, and I sympathize.
But, as you've just learned, corporate "security" has long become an oxymoron. And unless you truly, whole-heartedly loved your job, this development is actually a great thing.
Seriously: How much longer were you going to remain chained to your office chair, secretly feeling as if your life was passing you by?
How much longer were you going to keep going to meetings that bored you to death, cheering the management that, you knew, was lying to you, and counting the days and hours till the next weekend and the next vacation?
How much longer were you going to keep checking in your true self at your office door, until you no longer could tell the difference between your "true self" and your "work self"?
How much longer were you going to keep living somebody else's life, a life that had little to do with who you are or what's important to you?
Fact is, the most common regret people express at the end of their lives is having failed to take enough risks. When asked what they wish they'd done differently, people uniformly say they wish they'd had more courage to go after their dreams.
Are you going to be one of those people? Will you be among those wishing they could take back those years they'd spent holding on to their job for the sake of "security"?
Or would you rather be someone who'll say, at the end of your life, that you truly lived, that you followed your heart and did what you loved, that you'd done something that had made a difference in the world?
The end of a job can be seen as a tragedy, and it can also be seen as an opportunity. Right now, this very moment, you can choose to see it as a gift and the greatest chance life has ever handed you.
- Rather than giving in to your fear and despair, you can choose to welcome the change.
- Rather than rushing to apply with the next investment bank just because you think that's the only thing you know how to do, think about what you could do with your life that would give you a sense of true meaning and would leave a real imprint.
- Rather than falling into the doom and gloom, remember that your life is much bigger than any single job you've ever held and that now is as good a time as any to create a life that will be a true expression of who you are.
And if you don't know what it is or how to go about it, I invite you to get in touch with me. It's been my honor and privilege to help people just like you to reconnect with their authentic selves and design a career path that is fully aligned with their strengths, deeply-held values, and life purpose.
So go ahead, pick up the phone and call me (202-507-8750), or email me: izabella [at] projectcreativevision [dot] com. I work over the phone with people all over the country and internationally, so you won't even have to leave New York City to work with me. Do it. You'll be making the first step toward your new, better, greater life.
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