Over the last few months, I have been noticing a steady increase of people that I personally know who are losing their jobs due to a re-structure or by organizations moving to survival/cost cutting mode.
When something unexpected happens, or something you feared that could happen finally happens, your mind starts to do crazy things, so I thought of sharing this valuable life lesson I learnt few years ago.
In February 2003, I crashed my last company in epic scale. I was technically bankrupt, but due to a strange co-incidence which I still find hard to believe, I avoided bankruptcy. Weeks following losing my company was a tough time since I was getting lots of conflicting advice from people who have been in the same situation as I was. Keeping a clear head, maintaining a positive mindset and looking for a way to put some food on the table was extremely hard.
Fortunately, I got this invaluable piece of advice from John Selby, a senior partner in PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Wellington. Since then, I have passed this on to many people who have faced an unexpected loss, whether it may be a business, job, close relationship etc.
John said to me "Create two boxes in your head, every-time a thought comes to your mind related to your last company, put it in the Old Box and let someone else handle it. (i.e in my case, lawyer and accountant). Force your mind to spend time thinking about the New Box ... possibilities and avenues for you to generate some income and get back on your feet".
While this sounds simple, it's actually quite hard to do, because your mind will constantly wonder about the loss and lot's of things that you should or shouldn't have done. It took me few days to get control over my mind so I can quickly shut down any thoughts related to Old Box and direct my mental energy to the New Box.
Please share this story with anyone you know who is going through a difficult situation.
