I love when I come up with an idea for a theme like this week’s. I get so many old, out-of-the-blue stories to use to show that life is not all that bad for me. Today, as I got this story in, I was thinking back to what another motivator used from the stage almost 20 years ago. He would tell us that if all of us were to put our current problem in a bag and drop it on the floor, then kick it, find a new bag with someone else’s problem and open it, we would be looking for our own bag back after opening two other bags.
So many of us have problems we are facing. This week the subject of “lost” is a good way to look at some of the major losses we have in life. Imagine you are like my old friend Stephanie who worked in a factory for 17 years, making parts for new cars until her job was moved overseas. While many people want to place blame for where the job went, the bottom line is she was out of work and had to find a way to help in her part of supporting her family.
This is the story of so many in our country, or even our world. They went to work one day and came home without a job. I know what this was like; as a child I watched my dad come home this same way many times. It is what gave me the drive to be an entrepreneur.
Times change in our world and, yes, to move forward means the type of jobs that are available will change. While you may not be at a point of a lost job yet, what can you do with your life to be prepared for it?
First, sharpen your skills. Are there some areas that you could start improving on in life so you will have other work skills? We should always be working on improvement in our life. We should make sure we develop another skill to put to work when we need it. For years the major Companies always were grooming people to take over leadership positions when a certain leader was ready to retire. That is how they prepared for the survival of their company.
Not everyone has a printed resume anymore; most people have it available online. In today’s social media world it’s important to have your profiles up to date and looking good. One of the things Mike O’Neil of Rock the World Media tells his clients to do is to always have your LinkedIn profile up to date, to have it “spiffed up,” as he calls it. When you have it all filled in, it is ready at a minute’s notice if you need it. Or it’s out there for those recruiter companies, who are always looking for new talent to fill positions that are opening.
If you have been out of a job and are looking for one now, I suggest several things. Get involved with networking groups that help you to get your resume ready, and have a network of people who know people in other industries. Get a part-time job that can open up to full-time opportunities. Some people working part time at places like Starbucks, or bartending at a local bar are then able to meet and network with their daily customers to find out about opportunities they did not know were available.
When working part-time also get yourself back into a life of learning. If you learn the skills that I have learned from other entrepreneurs you could learn to create a new world for yourself. That is a skill that is needed, even in our company jobs. These companies in this world today need more entrepreneurs working for them to create new ideas and new divisions.
One of the old articles I was reading from a newspaper from the east coast stated that they were losing entrepreneurs who were giving up creating new companies and ideas, and each time they did that additional jobs were leaving. Think back to the young lady early in the story. After losing her job, she started selling crafts and DVDs on eBay in the mid ‘90s. She now has a rather large business she and her husband run from a garage they added in their back yard to run this business. They have learned to work with the changes. Even now as our world has changed they sell other things on eBay.
So if you are facing a possible layoff, or you have lost your job, it’s time for you to develop your entrepreneur skills and build a better world for yourself. It’s time to prepare your back-up plan. This is another way that coaches help you. After all, it’s been said one of the three toughest things that people face in life is death of a loved one, divorce, or layoff or loss of a job. Since job loss is one that could happen more frequently, you should prepare for it.
I’m Tim Gillette, the Rocker Life Coach. It’s time for you to live the life you always wanted, to learn to love what you do and those you share your life with, and develop a plan to become the RockStar in your world. I can help you put that plan together. Let me know what I can do for you today.
