Beyond the Mess - a different kind of door closing
As we reach the moment where we have to decide whether to buy a new bottle of shower gel or will hand wash just do, it’s a moment of reflection… 18 months ago I came here with some ideas, hopes & dreams. When one door closes… you have to say goodbye, and celebrate the door that is closing. You can’t stay mournful for too long. Onwards we must go. To the next venture. The next adventure play park. The next co-working space. The next Regimental Mess.
The power of 'f**k you'
Stop thinking about what’s happened, let go. Remember the good times. Remember all the brilliant stuff you did, the people you worked with. Celebrate the goodbye. And then close the door.
You are now in the space in-between, a door closing and the next door opening.
And each step you take to navigate through this space will determine what the next door you go through looks like. It’s not about volume of actions. This is about focused, intentional actions. Some days you may do nothing at all. Some days you maybe in flow and create many quality small steps.
You are not a job title, you are so much more
You have so much more to offer than your job title. You’ve lost your job. You haven’t lost you.
Is this an opportunity to say hello to You. Maybe You has been hiding behind that job title. Maybe You has been putting some things off. Now is the time to rethink who you are, what you want, and believe that actually you can be anything you want to be. Play with your ideal tomorrow. What is it? What are you doing? Why are you doing it? You can be anything.
So. What do you want your next job title to be?
How businesses handle redundancies is a leadership choice, now is the time to show your true values
Businesses notoriously don't handle redundancies well. After the tough decisions of having to reshape, rethink, redirect resources, they think their work is done. But that’s just where it starts. When the news breaks its not just a communication team’s issue. It’s a leadership issue, it’s an operations issue, a brand issue, a strategic choice about how redundancies are handled, and the impact on future success. Now is the time for business to show their true values.
Forget CV writing, prioritise being kind to yourself when you lose your job
Give yourself a break. Take off the pressure. Panic won’t speed up the process of getting another job, if anything it will slow you down and get in your way. Be kind to yourself. When you get made redundant you might jump straight into writing your CV, searching for jobs that match your previous job title, writing applications, but there are so many others things you should be focusing on. You aren't just getting a job. You are dealing with shock, you have to give yourself time to digest and reflect, you are dealing with yourself and yourself can be brutally unkind.
Comparison is the thief of joy Theodore Roosevelt said.
It’s complicated. That feeling we get when we see others doing stuff that we want to do. It’s a mix of emotions. How that person is making us feel. That person is not making you feel anything. You are. It is a choice. We are choosing. Choose how we react. Choose how we want to use our reaction. Choose what we want to do next. Give up. Keep going. Pause. Change something. Ask for help. Do it anyway. Comparison is the thief of joy. It can also be the source of joy. It’s hard. But it’s possible.
When one door closes... the space in-between
You have to work, slowly but surely, on your mind chatter. Each day moving yourself into a space of control and optimism, curiosity and open mindedness. Let go of things that aren’t helping you move on, and create room for good stuff to come in. The space in-between can be a challenge of emotions but you can make in a space of discovery. Keep an open mind, remain hopeful, be optimistic. A door maybe closing for you, but if you give yourself space to think, allow ideas to roam, could it be, could it possibly be, a good thing could come out of this for you.