Like many marketers recently, I experienced a redundancy shock a year or so ago. Was I surprised? Yes. Did I let it get to me? A little bit.
Luckily for me, I’ve been through it before. In fact, the last time I was made redundant, I came very close to being deported from the country I love so dearly because of my temporary visa status.
I’ve also had to leave jobs quickly for worse reasons -toxic culture, crazy work hours, sexual harassment, sexism – you name it, I’ve gone through it. Let’s just say that I’ve managed to build up a fair bit of resilience over time.
Now, while this time around, I’ve been more prepared, that’s not to say that I don’t have days where I’m shit scared. Uncertainty is hard to deal with (especially for a control freak like me), but if I could share one piece of advice from it all, it’s this…Lean in to what life presents you with.
After a few days of sadness, anger and a sprinkle of self-pity, I did the usual thing you’re ‘meant to do’ – updated my CV, started looking for jobs, reached out to my connections. What I found for the first time though, was that I wasn’t excited about the opportunities out there and I was just going through the motions with no passion – I guess I’d lost faith in the whole idea of putting my life in someone else’s hands.
So, I took pause. I started focusing on me – what did I want? What did I enjoy? What made me happy. To keep me busy, I picked up a few freelance projects that opened up with an old client. I started enjoying my time off more, learnt some new recipes, started writing again. Over the weeks, I started to feel happiness that I hadn’t felt in such a long time. I lent in more to client work, and honestly – the freedom I experienced has led me to doing the best work of my life. By taking each day as it came, and leaning in – I got my confidence back.
Fast forward to now, I’m leaning into what my gut is telling me to do and starting my own business!
I’m still finding my feet and still have moments where I think ‘how the f**k am I going to do this?’, but I’m working on leaning in to the fear. My experience with depression (and my psychologist) taught me to lean into emotion, take it for what it is and embrace it, so that’s what I’m doing.
There’s a reason we get sad, angry, anxious, all of it…so instead of fighting against it, I’ve started to face it. By being curious and asking myself straight up ‘what is making me sad’, I haven’t just learnt more about myself, but I’ve built a healthier relationship with myself. A relationship where I can be honest enough with myself that I’m starting to understand who I really am as a person. That is powerful stuff. It builds confidence and it can create magic.
If you need advice, a vent, or just want to chat – my DMs are always open, and if you’ve been made redundant or you’re going through a stressful time (or you’re just having a shitty day), why not try and lean in to it – it might just change your life too.