Here's how you can stay positive amidst unexpected career changes.

We live in a world that's often unpredictable due to its brittle and nonlinear nature (look up BANI). Keep an eye on emerging trends and ensure that you are focusing on your mastery journey and continued learning, rather than feeling you must meet a destination. If you keep learning and see yourself as being on a mastery journey, you'll likely feel more confident when it comes to a sudden need to pivot. If you stay stagnant, and stop learning, you're more likely to get stuck.

I've recently undergone a restructuring at my company. Initially, hopes were high following a corporate strategy cascade, but reality hit hard the next day. During this challenging time, I found it essential to reel back and process the change. Rediscovering my personal strengths and values, joining supportive communities, and embracing a career pivot have been invaluable. Analyzing my skill gap and bridging what I was lacking has been crucial. While the job market is tough where I am, staying positive and proactive has made a significant difference. Resilience and adaptability are key.

In my experience it’s important to discern what is true (reality) from what you’d want it to be. I see people who stay in organizations, relationships of all kind really, hoping one day the right job, fit, partner, boss, assignment will come. I think the better way is to look at what is true, decide how happy , motivated, values aligned you are with that and make a decision about what to do next. You hold the keys to your own happiness, and often times it takes looking at the world from an objective place to gain clarity on your best next move.

My position was eliminated 3 weeks ago and I was notified my last day of work would be 3 days later. When the news was shared with my youngest son and after asking questions about what I might do next - his response was "that sounds exciting". At that moment in time, the FEAR (False Expectations Appear Real) feelings were a little stronger in me than the feelings of excitement. However, the passing of a few weeks combined with a couple of positive and unexpected experiences along the way have me embracing my new reality. As several people have told me over the years after striking out in new directions - "If it feels scary and exciting at the same time...it is probably a good thing!"

After being informed 3 weeks ago that my position was being eliminated and my last day of work was 3 days later, I immediately 'owned' it. By sharing my situation with family, friends and colleagues as quickly as I could, I gained a couple of benefits: 1.) immediate social support, with several thoughts on potential next steps to consider, 2.) perspectives of several others who had also been through similar challenges This helped me to feel a part of a community and not isolated - and enabled a reconnection with several people who I had not communicated with in years.

You don't have to have a SMART goal. A Directional goal is often way more effective in times of uncertainty. People often waste a lot of time & energy trying to come up with a SMART goal - & often give up at this stage because it's too hard. The difference? SMART: I'm going to climb Mt Everest in Apr 2024. DIRECTIONAL: I want to climb a challenging mountain in the Himalayas, but I'm not sure which one. I'll find out more info, make decisions & pick up equipment along the way. Career SMART: "I want to be a Change Manager in an ASX company by 30th Oct." DIRECTIONAL: I want to do something in Change Management but I'm not exactly sure yet. I'll investigate some Change-related roles & make a decision from there depending what I discover.

About a week after learning that my position was being eliminated, I received an unexpected call offering the chance to do a short consulting gig in an area that I had been away from for a few years. This offered me 2 insights on continuous learning: 1.) LinkedIn profile updates and words used in them really do matter! 2.) Given the qualification questions, I realized that I needed to brush up on some of the major players in the industry before the call to come across as knowledgeable. The call went great and has inspired me to do additional research in the area to learn even more - and maybe write a LinkedIn article on what I learn...

I remind my clients that every experience, whether planned or not, contributes to professional development. By focusing on the skills and knowledge that you gain, you can turn potential negatives into positives and opportunities appear.

Remember the excitment you had when you started your current career...take that same energy and excitment and apply it to your new adventure. Rather than being fearful, be curious and think of all the amazing new roads that are ahead of you.

It will pass. This too shall pass. No matter where you are or how bad it gets, it will pass. That may take some time and a lot of hard work, but it will pass. That mantra has kept me going through the uncertainty and many ups and downs of running my own company for 17+ years, as well as numerous other hardships, including being retrenched, not knowing what to do in my career and recovering from suicidal depression 22 years ago. It also applies to the good times - things can quickly change - so be mindful to stop and be grateful in those times!