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These times are going to make the best of all of us and you, by losing your job, have entered the accelerated program. Congratulations! You have a rich opportunity to learn more about you are and how creative, resourceful and amazing you are.

This is a great chance to leverage this learning and move forward in creating what you want. Here are eleven steps for creating more of what you want:

Empower yourself! Choose a perspective that inspires you!

When you choose the perspective you want to create your life from, you are identifying a context for what’s happening. That context will frame your experience, thereby shaping your reality. If you don’t choose a context or perspective, one will unconsciously choose you. Try these two examples on and see what the impact is of each: “I wanted to expand myself and learn new things; this is a great opportunity for doing that.” Or, “I can’t imagine they will be able to live without me; no one will be able to do that job as well as I did.” What do you notice in these different perspectives? What does each create in you? Notice what happens in your body, thinking and your breathing when YOU create your own context intentionally! Simply stated…notice whether you expand or contract with your belief or perspective. (Make a list of several perspectives you could take and then find and select the one that inspires, engages and enrolls you in creating what you want).

Take ownership of the your own learning

Everything in life is an opportunity to learn something new, and getting fired or downsized qualifies you for the accelerated course. By taking ownership of your learning, you will become both the teacher and the student; you will create the curriculum for yourself and your life. Ask yourself questions that point you to the important learning available. This learning will powerfully carry you into the next phase of your life. Ask yourself gracious questions, not invading questions. Some gracious questions to reflect on could include: What’s here for me to learn? Where have I been selling out on myself? What are my priorities now? What have I been putting off that is important to handle now? What kind of job do I want if I could have whatever I wanted? (Invading questions are self-attacking and violent and sound like this: How did you get yourself in this mess? What are you going to do now, stupid? Man, you really know how to screw up; what else are you going to mess up?)

Take 100% responsibility for where you’re at — and be gracious with yourself along the way!

The word “gracious” keeps coming up because real learning, long-term learning takes place only when you honor yourself or when you are being honored during the process. Taking 100% responsibility (response-able as in able to respond) is gracious because it means that you are and always have been responding to life in a way that reflects your own decisions, choices and actions and as such, you have gotten yourself here — wherever you are. And, you can own that you are on the perfect path — the only path you can be on — your path.

Give up any temptation to be a victim; things don’t happen to you, they happen for you!

If you consider yourself a victim to anything, including the economy, your boss, your employer, you are taking on a context that will create your future. You are choosing even more victimhood moving forward. If you look at your life from a spiritual perspective, you will know that nothing happens to you, it happens for you and you want to see what the gifts are from each situation, even the situation called losing your job.

Look for and create new priorities

Comfort creates safety, predictability and stability and while those qualities may be attractive at times, they can also lull us to sleep and keep us from intentionally and powerfully creating what we want. Now is a time to identify your real priorities, not take things for granted and wake up to what’s important in your life. Do you have the family connections and relationships that are important to you? Are you taking time to reflect on your life and consciously choose your path and live out your purpose? These are just some of many questions that will help you discover new priorities!

Commit to letting go of fear when it creeps in and attacks…because it will

It will be easy to scare yourself or be scared during these times. Turn on the news, radio or open a newspaper and all you’ll hear is how bad it is. If you let that fear run you, what’s inevitable? You will lose your confidence, power, ability to create, and you won’t be able to see or leverage the resources out there. The fear will blind you and keep you from thinking clearly (physically, fear has you stop breathing from your belly and has you start creating short, shallow breathing which keeps oxygen from your brain which means you can’t think straight) and this will create even more fear. So, fear will attack and when it does, take some deep breaths again and again and then choose one action that will support forward momentum. It doesn’t have to be a big thing, just one thing that has you moving forwarding creating more of what you want.

Own your power to create

Regardless of your religious beliefs, most people have a sense of being created in God’s image and the first and foremost thing that this Higher Source seems to do is create one amazing thing after another. You, too, have this power and once you own this ability, your fears and confusion will diminish because you will know how to be present and available in this moment for what’s needed next! While you have been downsized, outsourced or fired, now is a great time to generate outrageous and creative ideas for finding new opportunities. Whatever you do, don’t default to another job just like the last one. This didn’t happen to you – it happened for you! So use this time to re-create yourself and notice that this word comes from recreation. What do you love? What are you passionate about? What lights you up? What do people come to you for? Where do others come alive around you? These are the creative, playful places you will want to use to generate your new future.

Inventory all the support and resources you have available

While you can’t always control what happens to you, you can control how you respond to what happens to you. One of the first things to connect with is all the resources you have and all the support there is available to you. This is often one of the greatest rewards people realize from difficult times — that there are many people who love them and want to help. While you may be reticent to ask for help, think about how you feel when someone asks you for support. Most often, people feel honored and privileged to be able to contribute to the lives of others — be sure to give them that opportunity and be sure you take it in when you do. I had an old habit of thinking I did life on my own and realized when I stopped to look at a deeper level, that was insane. People are contributing to my life all day long!

Make a list of the things you want in a new job!

Sound a bit outrageous? In tough times, people are lucky to get any job, and you want me to make a wish list? The answer to that is absolutely. What you want not only matters, but contributes to everyone’s well-being. The more fun you’re having in life, the more fun and positive energy you are creating around you. Make a list of the things you want in your ideal job; create a picture of the ideal day. Imagine and feel what that ideal job and day look like, feel like, sound like — what are you doing? Who’s there? What are the people around you like? What sorts of things are they creating that they want you to be a part of? How are you relating to them? Be specific. The clearer you are about what you want, the more powerfully the mind creates (good or bad).

Read that list to others and ask for their support

Making the list of what you want is a great start because now you know what you want and that’s a great beginning. Now, share what you want with others and ask them how they can help you create that. Your friends and family may know who has the perfect job, have the answer you need, ask you the question that helped you get clearer, introduce you to the a friend who knows a friend or introduces you to the employment consultant that can help you get where you want to go. Seven degrees of separation isn’t much; what you want may be closer than you think!

Trust your Self, not yourself

There are two different parts of you running parallel at all times — your ego and your Essence. Be sure that you know which one is running when. Remember that your ego lives in fear and comes from the perspective that you need to “survive.” That’s a pretty contracting perspective and will do just enough to get by or expect very little, if anything at all, during these times. However, your Essence knows that all is well, and that there’s an abundant world full of unlimited resources. An act of faith which is represented by a bold action that moves you toward your intended outcome will move mountains and create miracles where none were previously available. Remember that ego is not bad, it’s just limiting and that Essence is exponential and expands all possibilities.

Now what? Will you move mountains or just look for a job; the options, the perspectives, the choices, the actions — they are all yours!

Therese Kienast, MCC, CPCC
Founder, Radical Leadership