You received the notice that your services are no longer needed, now what.
Experts point out there are five stages of grief.
- Denial. “This can’t happen to me”. “I am too valuable of a worker”. Anything that causes you not to accept or even acknowledging the loss.
- Anger. “I am going to sue”, “They think they can fire me, just wait”. “You will here from my lawyer”.
- Bargaining. You will see many people turn back to the God of their youth. “If you get me out of this God, I will return to church.” This is the time a person suffering a loss wants to make a deal. Begging, wishing, praying for a return of the job is common.
- Depression. This stage can be very dangerous. Feelings of hopelessness, frustration, bitterness, self pity, mourning. You get feelings there is no way out of the box you got your self in. Thoughts of suicide, revenge, fighting back, or getting in a corner in the fetal position race through your mind. This is where you belief in God is critical. No mater how bad things are, they are temporary. As a friend and pastor said to me, “They same God that give you success and allowed you the good things in life, will be by your side to get you out of your current situation.
- Acceptance. When you move away from the four items above, you will start accepting what has happened. You move past the “why” and try putting a plan together to turn what appears devastating to something “Good”.
I don’t know of anything that would have forced me back to starting my own practice again, short of the sudden job loss I went through. As I look back over the last nine years, I realize that God had a wonderful plan for my life. It most likely saved my life by reducing the stress that most likely would have ended in a fatal heart attack. It allowed me to spend my work day with my closest friend, my wife. Got my overhead low, so when the depression came in 2009, I was positioned with a source of income with a low overhead. God has been vary good to me.
One of the things that got me off center and moving was reading “Who Moved My Cheese” by Spencer Johnson. Here is a short “You Tube” review: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwavPPNgbjw