Finding Happiness After Being Fired: The Mindset Shift That Changes Everything

What's up, my friend, and welcome to Grit Grace and Inspiration.

I'm your host, Kevin Lowe.

20 years ago, I awoke from a life-saving surgery only to find that I was left completely blind.

And since that day, I've learned a lot about life, a lot about living, and a lot about myself.

And here on this podcast, I want to share this insights with you.

Because, friend, if you are still searching for your purpose, still trying to understand why, or still left searching for that next right path to take, well, consider this to be your stepping stone to get you from where you are to where you want to be.

What's up, my friend, and welcome back to the podcast.

My name is Kevin Low, your host as well as transformation coach.

Today I welcome you here on episode number 211, where we are embracing the uncomfortable.

We are taking the bad and we are figuring out how to make good out of it.

That is a theme that runs deep and true here on the podcast.

And today's topic is no exception.

I got my inspiration for today's episode from Ina Coveney.

Ina was featured inside of our previous episode.

That was episode number two ten.

If you didn't get a chance to listen to it, I highly, highly encourage you to go check it out.

I'll be sure to leave a link to it inside of today's show notes if that can make life any easier for you.

But the reason that Ina inspired today's topic is because she was faced with a situation, a situation where she was in a career that she really loved, that she enjoyed, but yet she was being forced out.

She was being made to dislike this job, this corporate career.

And well, she ultimately made a choice.

And that choice was to leave in search of something new, of the unknown, the world of entrepreneurship.

Now, whether we're talking about somebody choosing to leave a career, or a situation like Ina's, where it was kind of a forced decision, or the other side of the spectrum, where we're talking about you being fired from your career.

Any of those three are interchangeable in this situation.

Because any of the three mean that you are being tossed into the unknown, that your world is being flipped upside down, and you feel like you are losing control of everything.

But today's episode, my talk with you, is to refocus your mindset and to have you realizing that quite possibly you have just been handed a gift, the gift of a new beginning, the chance at a new start, you in search of something new.

As we continue on into today's episode, I want to encourage you that if you resonate with something I'm saying and you think, OMG, I love this.

Well, please be sure to do me a favor and leave this podcast a review on Apple Podcasts.

It truly means the world to me, and it just helps this podcast to be discovered by more people, for people to see those reviews and realize hey, there's actually other people who like this podcast also.

Maybe I should give it a try.

So, if you would be so awesome, please be sure to leave the podcast a review if you have not already.

Now, with that out of the way, let's dive into today's episode because I am all kinds of fired up about today's topic.

When we start looking back at our lives, we can realize that there's some really big moments that truly have shaken us to our core, who have really ended up shaping us into the people that we have become.

And unfortunately, more times than not, those moments are the negative ones.

The moments like what I'm talking about today, of you being fired from your career.

Not only is being fired a shock to the system, not only is it the realization that, oh my gosh, what am I going to do?

How am I going to provide for my family?

How am I going to make my car payment?

But it's also a hit to ourselves, making us realize that wow, we're somehow less than what we thought we were.

Now, obviously, when we're talking about somebody getting fired, there's a hundred different scenarios at play.

But I'm talking about the scenario from your perspective.

And from your perspective, no matter what the situation was, is it's not a good thing.

Now, on the same token I mentioned earlier, I'm talking about three different scenarios, all interchangeable.

Whether we're talking about you being fired, you deciding to quit, or you being kind of forced to quit.

All of those kind of equal out to be the same thing.

Is that you all of a sudden are without a job.

You are without your comfort zone, your place that you spend most of your life.

Isn't that the truth?

Is that when we think about it, our workplace, that's where we do most of our life.

We're at least there Monday through Friday, eight to five, at the very least.

And so it's no surprise that if all of a sudden you're no longer there, yeah, it's gonna be a shock to the system.

It's gonna leave you scared.

Because, well, you're like a little baby bird who just flew out of the nest for the first time.

But what I'm talking about today, though, is changing the mindset, is taking the fear of the unknown and turning it into excitement for what could be.

Because what if being fired is actually the catalyst for your greatest successes in life?

What if that is the key that needed to be turned for you to unleash your potential, for you to finally find that place that you are meant to be, for you to finally be able to turn the page and begin that new chapter, the next best chapter in your life.

That's what we're talking about.

We're changing the mindset here.

We're realizing that life is not out to get us, even though sometimes it feels like it is, it's not.

In my opinion, everything in life is trying to work out for our good.

Sometimes we just kind of get in the way and screw it all up.

But life is trying to work for us, not against us.

And so if you find yourself in a position where you're ready to quit this job for one reason or another, then you know what?

You probably should.

And if you're in the situation where you've just been fired and you just so happen to find this podcast, well, let this be the spark that ignites a flame in you to burn so bright that it drives you to be doing exactly what you want to do because you've just been handed a new beginning.

When we are separated from our career, from something that we felt like was a part of us, a characteristic of us.

It's what we identified ourselves as.

We're presented with an opportunity to really chart a new course in our life.

As I said earlier, you're given it the chance at a new beginning, a fresh start.

And so I would encourage you to take advantage of this.

Not everybody gets this opportunity.

Not everybody is brave enough to be in this position, but you are.

You are fortunate enough to be right here, right now, on the crest of something truly magical in your life.

It's up to you to be sure that you harness it and you take advantage of it, and to be darn sure that when you cross the crest, that the other side is absolutely incredible.

Now, that doesn't mean that it might not require work.

Of course it will.

Everything does.

But if it's what you're supposed to be doing, then the work, well, the work is just part of the journey, part of the enjoyment.

And I think you'll be fine with that.

And so don't be distracted, don't be overwhelmed by the work involved.

Keep your eye on the prize, on what you're aiming for, and what you're going for.

Maybe it's a totally different direction.

Maybe it's a totally different career path.

Maybe you want to try out your hand at opening your own business, being an entrepreneur.

In this day and age, being an entrepreneur is easier than ever, thanks to the internet.

And so many times when we talk about entrepreneurship, we think of starting a big business where we have employees, a storefront location.

But in today's age, no, it doesn't have to be that complicated.

It literally can be you, a laptop computer, sitting at your kitchen bar in your pajamas, sipping on a cup of coffee all day long and making darn good money while enjoying your life at the same time.

Entrepreneurship in this day and age has so many different opportunities that it's there for you if that is what you're thinking about.

But the other idea of maybe it's time to just pivot and try out something different for a career.

And now is the time for you to get to do that.

And here's though, the really powerful part about this aspect of this situation is that when we're faced with a situation like this, it's at this time that you have the opportunity to really discover who you really and truly are.

You get to understand just how resilient you are.

You get to understand that you are capable of adapting to new situations, maybe better than you ever thought you could.

Maybe you're going to start to see things about yourself that you never realized before.

Well, because they've been hidden in the monotony of life, of work, the same thing day after day.

But now things have been shaken up.

And we can view that as a bad thing, or we can choose to view it as a good thing.

To see, ooh, what comes out the other end when we do shake things up?

What part of me is going to be revealed that I've been hiding away for way too long?

Now, I want to really be honest and I want you to understand that I don't want you to think that I'm making light of this situation.

A change in a career is a massive undertaking, especially if it's taken you by surprise and you were fired.

And you are quite honestly at a point where you probably feel really discouraged.

You probably feel really let down.

You probably feel like you've been abandoned.

You feel like somebody did you wrong.

And you're probably a mix of emotions ranging from anger to frustration to sadness to confusion.

You don't know who you are anymore.

You don't know what you're supposed to even be doing.

And it's at this moment that I encourage you to just stop, to just pause, to give yourself a break, to give yourself some grace and understand that you are in a horribly difficult situation.

And it's okay to be scared, it's okay to be overwhelmed.

That's all right.

Feel it, live it, deal with those emotions.

But here's the ticket I don't want you to stay there too long.

Because, well, the longer we stay there, the longer we stay there.

I want you to get out of it as fast as you can, but only when you are ready.

And once you get out of that dark spot, at that moment, you can really begin to see the light.

You can really begin to focus on what lights you up.

Start identifying what you're truly passionate about.

As I said, this was not your choice if you were fired.

This was not your choice if you were forced out.

But at the same time, you were just handed a blank canvas and you hold the paintbrush.

You get to paint the picture, you get to design where life goes from here and what it looks like.

And even though at this moment you may feel like that's a horrible thing to have to deal with, I want you to really stop and think.

Wow, you know what?

This is actually really beautiful because I get to make some choices.

I get to choose where I go from here, what I do.

You are on the brink of something incredible.

I know it.

As I said earlier, this life isn't out to get us.

And to be quite honest, I've seen it in the people I know who have left a career, who've been fired, who've been forced out, that it's all for a reason.

A reason far bigger and greater than they could even comprehend at the time.

But the fact is that they kept going and they trusted in the process.

And where they are today is so much better than where they would have been if they hadn't been forced out of that career.

Because sometimes careers, even though we think we may like them, they're not always so good for us.

Sometimes they bring added stress, extra overwhelm, and just make us into people that aren't our best versions of us.

I want a career for you that lights you up, that brings out the best in you while you're at work and at home.

Now, here's something that you might not expect.

Something that you may have not thought about that I want to prepare you for is that if you choose to leave your career in pursuit of something more, of something greater, well, you better be prepared that it might just have a ripple effect.

Yeah, you, a trendsetter, you, somebody people admire and look up to.

And I want you to be prepared for it.

And I can't help but think of everybody's favorite love story, everybody's favorite movie, Jerry Maguire.

Do you remember when he, Tom Cruise, playing Jerry Maguire, found out that he was fired?

And he was in the office and he was going crazy.

And he's thinking that everybody's just going to pile on board with him.

They're going to be like, oh yeah, man, we're going to come work with you, no doubt.

And yet nobody stands up.

Everybody starts just going back to work.

Well, except for one person, Renee Zellwicker.

And for some reason, something caught her eye about this guy, about this Jerry McGuire.

She decided to go and take the ride, to take a chance.

And so she did it.

Now, of course, we're talking about a movie, we're talking about a love story.

But I'm talking about a ripple effect.

Because when you do something great, when you take a chance, when you choose to dance, chances are other people are going to want to start dancing too.

And that is awesome.

And here's the thing maybe make it even bigger of a ripple effect.

Be sure that you got people in your corner before you ever even make a move.

Be sure that you got people to be your force behind you, encouraging you, helping you to move forward when the days are tough and the nights are long.

It's a ripple effect.

Be prepared for it.

Get ready for it.

Because whether or not you realize it or not, I believe that you are the ripple.

You are causing it.

Even if you're in a situation where you were fired, you have a chance to turn that around, to do something amazing with it.

And maybe, well, maybe the other people at your work are going to be like, dang, I wish I was fired.

Because look what he's just done.

He's got his own business.

He's doing amazing.

That's what I'm talking about.

We want people to start talking about what you have been able to do.

As I come to a close with today's short little solo episode, I want to remind you that being fired is not a tragedy.

It's merely an opportunity.

Because when one door closes, another door will open.

And that's how we move through life.

That's how we get to experience more in this life, is by allowing the wrong doors to close and the right doors to open.

And this is a chance for you to shed your past, to say goodbye to what was and be eager to meet what will be.

So if you find yourself in this situation and you find yourself feeling scared, I would encourage you to trust your gut, to go with your instinct, to let yourself soar, to let yourself feel the wind beneath your wings, and understand, wow, I'm capable of doing so much more than I ever thought, than I ever could have imagined.

I don't hope, I don't wish in any way, shape, or form that you have to be in this situation.

I hope that you aren't.

That you will remember episode number 211 on great grace and inspiration with that host, Kevin Lowe, who told you back then that it's okay, that you got this, friend, that this world is working for you, not against you.

So to roll with the punches and bend when the wind blows and discover what this next chapter has in store for you.

If at any point along your journey, whether you're the person who I just talked about or in a totally different situation of life, but you would love somebody to talk to, somebody to bounce some ideas off of.

Well, I want to invite you to schedule a time for us to talk.

You can check out today's show notes where I have a link for you to schedule a virtual coffee day where we can meet and let's just talk about what you've got going on and let's see if we can't figure out some things to help you get over it and get you headed on the right direction.

Again, a link to my calendar is inside of today's show notes.

So be sure to check that out.

With that said, listen, if you're going through the hard times, just realize they're not forever.

I promise better days are ahead.

You just got to keep moving forward.

Keep your eye on the prize.

And just remember this.

You got this because you're capable, you are able, and you are deserving of having all that you can imagine in this life.

I'm your host, Kevin Lowe.

Thank you for being here with me on today's episode.

Get out there and enjoy the day!