8 Lessons to Learn After Being Fired

After Being Fired – Our view of the world or events of life shape us to be great or to settle for mediocrity. Losing a job is one of such events which will either stall your career or make you aim for the height you always know in your heart you’re capable of reaching.

Now, you’re fired. It’s a done deal. No matter whatever reasons your company has to fire you, it happened. You can’t do anything about it but you can do a lot in spite of it.

People don’t realize what they’re middle of, because they’re middle of it. But let us tell you that being fired is a great opportunity even in an economy where getting a job is a tough job. Why? The rest of the article will answer your why. The lessons we will share will shake you, make you think and if you still are willing to make your mark in this short stint called ‘life’, you’ll get back up and say – “I’m more than what bothers me, I’m more than what affects me.”

Do you want to jump off from your bed and would like to begin a new life?

Read on.

Lessons after being fired;

1. Who said it’s an end? What if it’s a beginning?

Society sells us stories which are easier for the society to deal with. And we buy them believing those stories will help us too because a majority of the crowd believe the stories to be true. But what if the stories aren’t true? What would you do then?

• “Being fired is a terrible thing” they said and you nodded and then kept busy looking for ways to complain and get bitter about your life. But is it really a terrible thing?
• Before you were fired, even if you wanted to do something on your own, you couldn’t, now you can.
• Before you were fired, you couldn’t spend more than an hour a day with your son/daughter/wife, now you can.
• Before you were fired, you couldn’t pursue things that frightened you, now what worse can happen? So now you can.
• Before you were fired, you were a slave of your company, reporting on time, punching extra hours for no extra buck. Now you’re free, you have time and autonomy both.
• Before you were fired, you couldn’t think about life and its enormous possibility, now you can sit, be lazy and jot down few things you always wanted to do, but couldn’t.
• Before you were fired, you couldn’t imagine what your life would be without a schedule, now you’ve a spotless future.
• So, why do you think being fired is a bad thing? Let us rephrase it for you – “It’s a temporary feeling of anxiety.” It will go away and you will soon begin to shape your life exactly the way you always wanted.

2. Life is inevitable

There are things in life which you can’t control even if you want to. Dr Stephen Covey called it “area of concern” in his bestselling book “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”. With your effort you can learn to reduce your “area of concern” and increase your “area of influence”. But still a major part would be out of your reach.

Being fired lies in your “area of concern”. During this time, it’s tough to accept what happened especially when you’ve family to feed, bills to pay and things to do. But it’s freeing as well. It’s like a reset button where suddenly you’re done with the job and you’ve a blank slate to begin your new life.

Accept the inevitable and do your part. That will make your life easy. In Zen teaching, Zen masters teach a phrase – “What is, is!” The moment you accept it, your life will begin to shift in a positive direction.

3. I am responsible

You may not be responsible for what happened to you. But how you feel about is your responsibility.

Famous management consultant and author of several books gave us this magic phrase – “I’m responsible.”

No matter wherever you’re, whatever you do and in whatever situation you find yourself, if you can do just one thing, it is this –

Take radical responsibility of whatever situation you’re in.

And it changes everything.

When you’re fired, it’s difficult to take responsibility, but it’s more difficult to deal with any irresponsible behaviors you allow yourself to pursue.

The best way to take responsibility is to do one small thing when you feel overwhelmed. It can be as easy as sending your resume for a position that is vacant or outlining the book you always wanted to write or discuss with your friend about a new venture you’re thinking to start by your own.

4. You can handle anything

The most important realization never comes during the period when we’re happy, joyous or prosperous, rather when we’re sick, in the middle of terrible despair and disappointment. The realization is no matter what happens you have the ability and capacity to handle it.

For example, you couldn’t have imagined ever that you’ll be out of your company even after serving so many years with all your heart, time and effort. But now it happened. You’re still alive. Your mind is still working. You’ve all the skills and knowledge that you had before getting fired. That means what? You’ve successfully handled your demise from the company.

When you realize this, you also realize that you can handle anything you want, yes, anything that happens to you. And you can step over it, move on and do something meaningful.

So what’s stopping you now?

Take this as a learning, step over it and make your life count.

5. Don’t make the same mistakes

It’s time to review what happened and why it happened. You’re fired – that’s a result. Question is why. Why you’re fired? What did you do wrong? What did you misunderstand? What couldn’t you grasp before you’re fired? What mistakes you made?

Take your journal (if you have one) or a crisp blank sheet of paper and write down the answers to these questions and one action step for each to take within 30 days to change.

The definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over again and expecting a different outcome.

If you think that you need to stick to your new job and don’t want to get fired like the previous one, you may need to make some tweaks which will help you build your career consciously.

You don’t need to go through this phase again and again, only if you don’t forget to learn from your mistakes and take one step at a time without giving up.

6. Find the right fit

It’s important to know what works and what doesn’t. Once you lose your job, you know that something didn’t work, so you would need to do something to make it right.

Maybe your boss whom you used to report to wasn’t good enough to encourage your work or maybe you weren’t paid that well to compensate your effort or just maybe you were not suitable for that industry.

No matter whatever it is, getting fired is an opportunity for you to find a right fit which will let you dream, let you think ahead of your competition and be world class.

Only thing you need to do to be able to find the right fit is to keep looking.

Business philosopher Jim Rohn said it best – “Rarely any good opportunity comes your way. You need to keep searching. Opportunity is for the searchers.”

Be a searcher of good opportunity.

When you find one, don’t just listen to your gut feeling. Your gut feeling is a signal that you may go ahead and do it; but you need to look for the details as well. Find out who you will be reporting you, find out the background of the company and get to know about the work-culture of the company and also the attrition rate.

Once you’re comfortable, go ahead and accept the job.

7. Prepare hard

There is no substitute of preparation. The person who prepares the most wins. And that can be you even after you’re being fired.

You can learn an important lesson when you lose something. In this case, it’s your job. When you lose something, you lose the surface, but deep within you’re the same person you were before you were fired.

Business philosopher Jim Rohn became a millionaire at the age of 31 and then within 2 years he has lost everything by signing a guarantee letter issued to one of his known companies. When he lost his millions, he was depressed, he was on the street and he realized he needed to begin again. But he realized even if he lost everything, he still has the skills he has taken time to develop; and that’s what will help him make millions and more. And he did it again within few years.

Lesson for you – even when you lose a job, you have the skills. If you hone those skills, prepare for the opportunities and remain positive, you will build better things, get greater job and make better life.

Motivational speaker Les Brown said –

“It’s better to be prepared and have no opportunity than to have the opportunity and not prepared.”

So, get ready. Be prepared. Find out what make you tick. Learn a new language. Harness the skills you already have. And keep looking for the opportunity. One day when you will get up from sleep, you will see opportunity is knocking your door and you’re ready to jump off the bed embrace that opportunity.

8. Don’t attach your worth to your work

It’s a belief that – you are what you do. But is it? If it’s true, when you don’t, you aren’t? Right?

Wrong.

You aren’t what you do.

You realize this when you lose your job and you sit alone idle in your room, trying to figure out what happened and why it happened.

Let us remind you that you’re not a human doing, you are human being. Your worth is not in what you are able to accomplish, rather what you become while accomplishing them. So when you lose your job, you still are there, alive, even without the job you had.

After getting fired from the job, it’s time to renew yourself, to know yourself deeply, to make love with yourself and to find out your strengths, weaknesses and who you truly are.

During these moments of rumination, you will be able to find that you’re in a perfect place to begin again and to be bolder, more courageous and to start something that you always wanted to do in your heart. And that’s it. The moment you realize that you’re not what you did or lost, you will begin to value yourself a little more and you will be able to make your life count, once again, even after feeling terrible for being fired.

Being fired is never a good feeling. And for most of us it’s very hard to accept. But like any other events of our life, it’s just one of the events which has happened and like any other event, it too will pass. When you’re too bogged down with feeling terrible and are not able to find any solution, the first thing you should do is – to breathe. Breathe in and breathe out. Realize that you’re still alive and that means you can still make your life count. It’s not the words of hope but it’s a matter of shifting your perspective from being glum chum to being a possibility thinker.

What most people feel at this time is tremendous fear – fear of not having a job, fear of not feeling capable enough, fear of not being able to provide your family with the means that you would like to provide, fear of failure and fear of not being able to get back up again.

But it’s just bunch of fears. Fears are nothing but false evidence appearing real. They’re your imagination and they’re there to warn you about possible dangers you might face after being fired. What you need to do when you’re very much fearful is to take an action, even if it’s a smallest one. Just go ahead and do something super-easy. And then take another one and then another. Sooner than you realize, you will begin to get hold of yourself and get back up to start searching for opportunities.

Being fired is not end of the story. Believe, it’s a beginning of a new episode of your life.