When things fall apart they fall into place - Hello uncertainty!
Danny Laker
Mom | Producer | Writer | Actress | Serial Entrepreneur | Author | Visionary | Investor
Happy Monday y’all!?
This week calls for something special.??I had my newsletter all composed and somehow it felt not right to publish it on Friday noon.??Now I know why.??I changed my original topic, which I will publish some other time.?
On the weekend I read a quote that stayed with me and resonated in so many conversations and encounters during the last days.??‘Sometimes when things are falling apart, they may actually be falling into place.’ J. Lynn.?
It’s a wonderful time of the year - generally.??The gift giving season is about to start??and we are entering the last month of 2022.??Yet, this year for some it is an entirely new situation, as this years brought about changes in economic and private life alike.??It started off as a very turbulent and exciting year.??For many people it entailed a change, of jobs, of facing a new environment to live and work in, leaving the known and stepping in the unknown space.??
Some of us entered into a new employment or left their freelancing business to join a corporate environment, to finally take the step and work in a stable environment.??Although, this year showed us, employment is no guarantee for permanent work and income in crisis.?
Bye Bye, Planing - Hello, Uncertainty!
Companies and individuals alike are now confronted with the challenge of layoffs.??The abrupt layoffs, occurred to us to an extent not many of us had expected in the beginning of the year.??Many layoffs caused not just loosing a job, but losing relationships, a safe place to live and work and the convenience of receiving a stable income.??Negativity and law suits went along with all of that and so much hard feelings caused people to waste energy and focus less:??in other words, things fell apart.??
I’d like to ere on the positive twist to the quote and challenge us all to embrace this negative event of being laid-off or being affected by a wave of lay-offs, to look at it as a thunderstorm, clearing the air and find a new baseline to our understanding of career and personal development.??
It calls for something that provides a new solid fundament that is holding the fort in the volatile environment which is mostly unpredictable. Bye bye good old 5-year strategy plans.??Hello, uncertainty and adaptability!?
Almost each one is affected in one way or another with this change through political, technological and social change.??It is scary and it shakes our belief systems to an unknown extend.??Most of us assumed being employed is more secure and stable than being on your own as a freelancer.??Most of us assumed that permanent employment could not end from one day to the next, at least not in Germany.??It all changed and is still changing.??Private and professional ties melt more and more into one.??Who knows who is even of greater importance in the right to play in business.??And a hidden agenda is what you should have, in order to survive, right???I mean, who’s with you, when you are all of a sudden laid-off, despite the fact they got you on board, to change the existing processes or products???
Let’s find better words to it, it’s the Plan B, not the hidden agenda, although, it pretty much is.??Plan B is and should be part of your own individual career path, disconnected from your employer.??Networking and knowing how to sell and position and market yourself is crucial to advance in your career and even to survive.??Sometimes more than the service or skill with what you actually contribute.?
That uncertainty is really challenging.??
It’s a paradox somehow; on the one hand we hide even more than ever under a mask of ‘how we want to be seen’ through social media and beyond, and on the other hand ‘we open more up and play our private ties’ to succeed.??Case in point, the idea of pursuing a career and identifying with a company, becomes more and more a challenge on the employer and employee side alike.??Employer branding focusses in the war for talents on new methods and perks to get the hottest talents onboard, and yet, even they can’t provide certainty to keep them on board, til death us part.??See the paradox???The war for talent and at the same time massive need for layoffs???Somehow it reminds me of this ‘never really commit’ in an on- and off relationship that we find so often in today’s romantic life.??A kind of love and hate twist, which we are facing, since the hot talent can turn into the one to be the scape goat in no time and been first laid-off - and this has nothing to do with skills or quality of work.??Strange world!??Where does this leave us???
In my career I’ve been in that situation with on- and off working in corporate.??Actually, it sometimes felt in retrospect like really a relationship.??Entering corporate as an entrepreneur, entails to step back in your power and adapt to a certain culture and lifestyle.??You mingle with what is there.??Like in a relationship you give something away from your independence and take on a certain role.??You like it or hate it, but it becomes part of who you are and how you identify yourself.?‘I’m with XYZ’.??You wear the company hoodie, tshirt, are proud to be XYZ and serve as an ambassador as you are in love with what you do and the company you are with.??Well, at least in the honeymoon phase, right???If now, things fall apart, for what ever reason, in particular because the company considers you as not a fit, or you changed, or the offering of the company changed, or in times of crisis, like we face today.??Everything falls apart.??And Baahm!??There you are.??You loose part of who you are.??If you say not for me, challenge yourself.??How often you somehow identify with your company, as you proudly use the title on your CV or when somebody asks you what you’re doing for a living.??Our employer is part of our identity.??Period.?
So now, when this is falling apart, it’s no longer there.??It’s like in a divorce: Over. Gone.??Past.??Old story.??End of story.??
Recovery after lay-off
Particularly, when we have been in a long-term employment or better relationship with our employer, we basically go through a similar process, like after a break-up of a romantic relationship.??Out of the fear of being ‘on our own’ we try to get in back into what we know.??Sometimes the rebound works, like in romantic relationships as well, but sometimes, it even gets worse, as we end up comparing our good old job and end-up in switching from place to place, never being fully satisfied.?
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1) We feel abandoned or pissed off or both;??in most cases we tend to aim for a ‘rebound’ rather than looking into endless opportunities, lying right in front of us
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2) We are scared to be ‘without money’ (scarcity mindset) and jump to any option rather than looking into our self-worth and neglect the opportunity being confident of our own value - what we bring to the table as our USP
3) We remain on autopilot instead of readjusting our inner compass including social and professional life
What if though, things fell into place, by falling apart???What if this layoff is your way to wholeness as a human being after 15 years of employment after 25 years of being in almost a kind of ‘romantic relationship’ with your employer???You are free. You can be just you! You have all the possibilities in the world to start over. Re-imagine yourself and have a total revamp of who you are or what you have to offer. Amazing!
I don’t encourage to live from social welfare after being laid-off or taking time off to readjust, but at least, take the time of a day or two and before you jump right on linked-in or any job portal, try to revisit and take this opportunity to reset and potentially find something so unique in you - which makes you irreplaceable.??So, instead of stagnating in complacency of the same old same old, here’s your invitation in the layoff to reconsider your course and really invest in you, and allow your true superpower to make money.??
# Who are you without wearing the ‘XYZ’ head?
# What is your potential being ‘on you own’ now???
# Where do you thrive best in which environment?
# What is your value to the world?
# What is your price? This one is tricky, but so important as it is reflecting your self-worth.
It does not take long, it’s just a couple of hours wisely invested to take a step back and revisit your personal career.?
The quote is actually true for quite some other things as well. Each set-back is a kind of STOP! and always comes with a change and a chance to start-over. In layoffs and in all other work and life situations where we face rejection and abandonment. For us business leaders, it is an invitation, to potentially include this in the lay-off process as well, to lay-off right and help by opening doors, 'cause you never know, when you'll see them again, perhaps at the other side of the table..
Bring it on!
Danny
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Words that matter
‘Where you place your attention, you place your energy.’?Wise words by Dr. Joe Dispenza.??Especially in times of setting out for a new future.??
Amazing read
‘Think and Grow Rich’ by Napoleon Hill.??Sometimes the step back is exactly what you need to understand how to move forward.??In essence the step back is more or less a halt, on your high-speed autopilot, which invites you to just ‘think’.??Worth reading it more than once.?
Wisdom from Super Heroes
‘Life is Locomotion, if you’re not moving, you’re not living, but there comes a time when you stop running away from things, and you’ve got to start running towards something.’ The Flash
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