Are You Out of Control?

Don’t waste time and energy trying to control things beyond your reach

Things in your career haven’t turned out exactly how you had anticipated that they would. If you’re typical, for years you believed that if you worked hard, if you were good at what you did, you would continue working there until you were ready to retire.

Oh sure, you knew that some people in their 50s and 60s were losing their jobs, but you never believed that it could happen to you – until it did. That fateful day when you were told that you no longer worked there. The years, the sweat, the toil that you invested in your job… gone in the blink of an eye.

Now what?

What do you do now? Where do you go? Where will you find another job like the one you had?

Among the resumes, the cover letters, the phone calls, et.al., the very first thing that you need to do is to turn the corner. You have to turn the corner away from your old job and start marching toward a new one. What’s done is done. What’s past is past. You can’t change that. Don’t waste time and energy trying to control things beyond your control. It will only lead to depression and frustration.

We all like to feel like we’re in control of our lives. Although that may be true for a lot of things, there are things over which we have no control and losing your job is one of them. That’s over. It can’t be undone.

Recently we heard a wise man comment, (paraphrasing) we can't control the situation around us, but we can control our reactions to the situation.

Leaving your job wasn’t under your control. What you can control is what you do next. You can sit around feeling sorry for yourself, or you can do what you have to do. The cover letter. The resume. The LinkedIn profile. The networking. The informational interviews. Whatever it takes to land that next job – that is what you have control over.

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