You are not a job title, you are so much more
Thousands of people losing their jobs.
Thousands of people wanting to find another job.
Thousands of jobs disappearing.
Or.
One person (you) with unique skills, talents, hopes, dreams who can reinvent themselves, think differently about who they are, be brave enough to do something they’ve always wanted to do.
And why not?
You are so much more than your job. You have so much more to offer.
I believe most people have at least 10 different possible careers in them. We are not one dimensional. We can be many things to many people. People change career all the time. They reinvent themselves. They follow fresh thinking, new ideas, open up to possibilities. They re-imagine their future.
It’s not easy, but it is possible,
Put the job title away
What were you really doing? Forget the job description (did you even do one thing on it?). Forget the line manager appraisal chats. What did you really do?
Who did you help?
Who helped you?
What did you love?
What did you hate?
When did you win?
When did you fail?
What did you talk about at the coffee machine?
Why did you do it?
You are not a job title. You are all the things that make up that job, and then you are you. Everyone does jobs differently, we see things differently, we learn , we grow, we interpret, we can pass things on. Everyone can help someone else.
You don’t have to settle for what your CV & job title might think you are. You can be whatever you want to be. You’ve been you before, you can be you again.
You have many different versions of your self.
You have choices what to do next.
You can twist & turn your skills, you can retrain, you use your skills in a different way. You can make your hobby your career.
Lots of other people do this - why not you?
Ask yourself ‘What do I do?’
That’s where you’ll remember. You’ll remember who you are. You’ll remember the good times, the times you moaned, the times you laughed so hard you weed a bit, they bad bits, the bits that frustrated you. the bits that made you stare out of the window during a boring presentation, the bits when you thought bad thoughts about your boss, the bits when you thought good things about your colleagues, the customers you loved, the customers that annoyed.
What do you want to keep? What do you want to let go of?
Take the Case Example of Cabin Crew.
Over 6000 cabin crew lost their jobs this month. But 6000 people will go on to find new opportunities.
You are not just ‘Cabin Crew’
You are the person that knows about customer service (deliver that for others)
You understand the importance of safety (pass it on)
You are the master of the importance of sleep (help others)
You know how to revise! (teach others)
You know the importance of uniform design (advise others)
You know about travel, sustainability, the importance of community (write about it, share it)
You are not just ‘Cabin Crew’
Ask yourself questions
Finding time to think is not about 3 weeks backpacking in Thailand. It’s about taking 10 minutes a day, a drink might be involved, to sit with a question.
‘What do you want’?
That brilliant poster by Anthony Burrill.
Sit with the question.
No pressure to find answers, or ideas, or actions. Just sit with it.
That’s where it starts.
All clues to what your future could be.
When a door closes, its just a door closing. It’s the next chapter of your story.
How many chapters have you had so far?
How many versions of your self so far?
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?
What do you need to do to achieve it?
You can be anything.
So. What will be your next job title?
eleanor
Founder of Another Door
If you want help to re-imagine your future & make losing your job a good thing, join the club, we are here to support you all the way. Find out more.
We all support businesses making redundancies with online outplacement workshops and programmes that you can afford. Contact us to tell us what you need.