My friend Kathrine Lee says, “A setback is just a set up for comeback.”
My job had been touch and go for several months. After eight excellent years, it seemed that my season as a corporate health nurse was coming to an end.
To hundreds of my fond patients, I was “Nurse Mary,” their knowledgeable, supportive and caring health professional. In their eyes, I could do no wrong. But despite these rave reviews from patients and a glowing article about me in the Charlotte Observer, I was feeling the need for a change.
For months, my heart had been torn between love for my job and a growing passion for my own entrepreneurial pursuits. I’ve heard stories about mama eagles who “stir up the nest” to make it uncomfortable for their baby eaglets to stay where they are.
This is what happened on my job. Every time I turned around, the same few people were complaining about something, and I was constantly under the microscope. Although my yearly performance reviews were great, on a daily and weekly basis my boss seemed to nitpick about my smallest shortcomings.
And then the axe fell. My job ended with an inglorious thud. I was hurt, but not totally surprised. And my heart was already elsewhere: with my children…my music…my books…and my entrepreneurial projects.
Yes, getting downsized can be frustrating, but I’ve found that it also provides a great opportunity to reinvent ourselves. In recent years I’ve met tons of people who became discontented in with their jobs—like me, tired of feeling like a square peg trying to fit into a round hole. Dreamers and entrepreneurs are “eagles” at heart. It’s hard for them to endure being put in a cage or confined to a nest.
But being downsized turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to me. I determined that instead of allowing this to get me DOWN, I would use it as an opportunity to look UP and launch into something new and better!
Painful as it was, this difficult experience enabled me to reinvent myself as an author, speaker and life coach. I have also gone back to hospital nursing on a cardiac unit and love it! Reading EKG’s is fascinating! It turned out being downsized gave me a needed kick in the rear end, resulting in a new season of focus and vitality.
What about you?
Have you ever lost a job or faced some other difficult situation when you felt rejected or afraid? If so, how did you respond?
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