Getting Fired Doesn’t Have to Suck: 10 Things NOT to do if Your Laid Off

Make Getting Fired the Best Thing That Ever Happened to You 

I’ve never been canned. I guess I’ve been lucky that getting fired has never happened to me. But I have failed countless times. But every time I get back up. 

I implore you to do the same. Get back up.

Getting fired is NOT the end of the world. It’s a painful failure for sure, but we can either let failure define us or use it to grow. 

Even if you haven’t been fired yet, or are just nervous about the possibility, don’t do these ten things at any point. 

I let failure help me grow. Sure, I hate failing and it gets pretty freakin’ annoying after a while, but it’s part of the process. It will make your eventual big win all that much sweeter. 

Maybe you can relate? Or maybe you’re just pissed off and have no idea what to do next? 

You’re in the right place. 

Like I said, I’ve never had to experience getting fired, but I’ve been working for myself for the past several years and I love it. 

I’ve run into countless entrepreneurs who all seem to have something in common:

“Getting fired is the best thing that ever happened to me!” They all say. 

While it seems weird, and even a little annoying to hear while things are upside down, I know one thing with absolute certainty: 

The best place to be is working for ourselves. The age of jobs is ending. The time of working for ourselves is upon us. 

The world will be a better place when more people shrug off the old-fashioned concept of the normal 9-5. 

But it sucks. I know that. 

Even when I quit my last job, it frightened me like a rabbit in a lightning storm with no den. 

I had to support myself and my wife. I had to get cash flowing in. 

And thus, I’ve been able to dabble in many online avenues for making money. But all the while, I’ve been cognizant of the fact that money alone won’t lead us to fulfilment. 

We need money like we need a raincoat in a storm. 

We need purpose and passion like we need water in the desert. 

Here are 10 things you shouldn’t do after getting fired, if you just think you’re getting fired, or are just ready for a change. 

1) Don’t Panic: Make a Plan. Create Your Own Destiny Road Map ?️

Whether you quit your job on your terms, or your boss gives you terrible news, the game plan forward remains the same:

Make a plan. 

But not just any old plan. Anyone can make a plan. You need a Destiny Plan. You need something concrete and solid you can work from. 

You need something built off Destiny Goals, a plan to take you from where you are to where you want to be. 

The problem?

Most people don’t even know what they really want to do with their lives. 

You can’t make a Destiny Plan based on incomplete information. Know what it is you want from life. 

You can apply for another job, but what’s preventing your new boss from doing the same thing as your last?

Jobs aren’t secure. The most secure plans are ones we create. 

Get creative and brainstorm what your life could look like. Be creative and don’t let “possible” stop you from reaching your best. 

Practice: Make a Life Plan

2) Don’t Apply for Your Next Job Right Away: Refresh Your Goals ?

What is your #1 goal right now? Do you know?

One of the worst mistakes you can make is running directly into your next job. Don’t do it. 

Instead, take a second and refresh your life goals. Make sure what you’re doing lines up with what you want to do. 

Setting goals and defining your life works. You can’t know where you’re going or even when you’ve arrived without a life compass. 

Whenever I’m in a rut, I always find it valuable to reset and ask myself what I’m working toward, who I want to become, and what I want to accomplish. 

An energizing place to start is by completing the following exercise. Break it down this way:

• What are ten things I would like to accomplish? (Examples: Write twenty-five books, sell a business for $10 million, compete in a hot-pepper eating challenge and win.)
• What are ten things I would like to see? (Examples: The Pyramids, my daughter’s wedding, the ocean from my screened-in porch.)
• What are ten things I would like to become? (Examples: An international speaker, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, a screenwriter for Disney/Pixar.)
• What are ten new things I could try? (Examples: Travel to outer space, cliff dive in Bermuda, win a poker tournament and qualify for the World Series of Poker.)
• What are ten things I would like to share with the world? (Examples: I want my children to have a love for reading, I want to become a local legend beekeeper, I want to direct an indie film picked up by Netflix.)

Get to fifty life goals and your eyes open up to the possibilities within your life. You’ll see that life has so much more potential than you ever thought possible.

So do this now. 

*Sometimes it’s hard to start, but view this as a working list. It doesn’t have to be complete or perfect. Make the goals as big or as small as you’d like. Breaking them down comes later. 

Your Turn

What are ten things I would like to accomplish?

1. Answer 1

What are ten things I would like to see?

1. Answer 1

What are ten things I would like to become?

1. Answer 1

What are ten new things I could try?

1. Answer 1

What are ten things I would like to share with the world?

1. Answer 1

How do you feel after completing the above? 

I bet you started slow, and then, as you thought of ideas, you almost couldn’t put the pen down!

That’s what happened to me when I did this. The ideas started coming, and it filled me with excitement of what my life could be. 

We won’t accomplish ALL of our goals, but making a list puts us on the right track to live the life we want to live. 

If it works better for you, you can be more free with it and just list out 50 goals. Do what works for you. If these questions don’t help to bring out 50 goals, make up your own. 

My Example

Here are my answers to the workshop to give you a feel for how it goes and what you want to look for.

I’m pumped not only to share this with you, but to have gone through it again myself. These types of exercises ALWAYS give me strength and propel me forward. ?

What are ten things I would like to accomplish?

1. Give away $10 million to fight against hunger in cities
2. Give a Ted talk on the benefits of leaving normal behind
3. Write 25 books
4. Sell 1 million books
5. Play the completed Phantom of the Opera series on my ocarina from memory
6. Buy a home to rent while we travel but also to have a home base
7. Adopt a child and care for it like it was my own
8. Grow my subscriber base to 10,000
9. Do a 100k product launch that helps thousands of people
10. Learn how to swim

What are ten things I would like to see?

1. My wife compete on Survivor
2. My friends and family embrace their inner creative and reach their full potential
3. An end to racism, hunger, and poverty
4. The Grand Canyon
5. 100 people believe in themselves and make an immense life change
6. San Diego
7. Canada by train
8. Iceland
9. Take a hot air balloon ride in Myanmar
10. My name on a library building

What are ten things I would like to become?

1. An international speaker
2. NY Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling author
3. A traveler who’s been to 50 countries
4. Happily married for 10 years and beyond
5. A fiction author who writes a science fiction book that becomes a movie
6. Someone who lives for Jesus and isn’t afraid to share the good news
7. A top rated homemade pizza chef
8. A private pilot
9. Someone who made a difference in hundreds of thousands of lives
10. Someone who isn’t afraid of the water

What are ten new things I could try?

1. Inventing an earplug that actually works, so I can learn to swim
2. Writing my first fiction novel
3. Going without coffee for a week
4. Meditating daily for a month
5. Archery
6. Caving
7. Starting my own mastermind group
8. A three-day fast
9. Improve my 10k time to under 50 minutes
10. Building a birdhouse

What are ten things I would like to share with the world?

1. The love that my wife and I have. We want to have a 10 year re-vow ceremony.
2. The value of communication in relationships
3. The importance of setting goals and taking relentless action
4. Practical ways to make the most of every day
5. Content to encourage and inspire
6. I want to one day live 90/10. Meaning I want to give away 90% of every dollar I receive to end hunger around the world by helping people to live out their passions.
7. Hope and love
8. The value of friendship and relying on others
9. Why Survivor is the best show ever created
10. The incredible value of reading every day

You may already have a good sense of your direction in life, but refreshing goals is never a terrible idea. 

Before you launch into job applications, do the hard work on you first. 

3) Don’t Let it Define You: Discover More About Yourself ?

“When I discover who I am, I’ll be free.” – Ralph Ellison

Self awareness is a critical piece to becoming the ideal you. The more you know about yourself, the more the world is opened up to you. 

Freedom awaits when you understand your personality, are building skills, and asking for feedback. 

Want a quick win?

Ask 10 friends what they think your most defining attribute is. Chances are you’ll get interesting answers back. 

Others influence us more than we know. There’s a marvelous chance your best friend knows exactly what you should do and would love to share, but has never had the chance to tell you.

I did this personally, and the experience was excellent. It confirmed things I already knew and helped me to see myself in a more positive light. 

Here are three other resources to get to know yourself.

1. How to Get Super Powers: 101 Ways to Become Majestical 
2. How to amplify your personality with the 16 Myers-Briggs personalities
3. You can take the CliftonStrengths test here.

4) Don’t Beat Yourself Up: Meditate ?

You can meditate anywhere, even on a snow filled hammock. 🙂 The first step you probably took is to feel bad. That’s normal, but don’t stay here. 

Don’t be too hard on yourself. Tons of people get fired every day. Whether it’s from layoffs, downsizing, mergers, companies shifting, positions changing, etc. Things happen all the time. It doesn’t mean you were a terrible employee. It just means it was your time to head out. 

Replace thinking about your impending or recent life change with meditation 

And no, I don’t mean going on a month long meditation retreat to the mountains in Thailand. I’m talking about spending just a few moments slowing your breathing and being mindful of your situation.

Meditating is a super power we all have access to. All it takes is a few minutes a day to do this practice. You don’t need hours to reset your mind. All it takes is the ability to stop, take a breath, and be privy to your thoughts and feelings. 

The world is FAR too noisy. Quiet the noise with this strategy. 

My favorite way to take deep breaths and meditate is to use this method.

Right now: Use the 5-9 method for the best deep breath. Sit up straight with both feet on the ground. Breathe in for a count of 5, pushing the belly outward. Once you get to 5, breath out slowly for 9 seconds, tucking the chin under and trying to put the top of your head into the ground. Repeat five times. Once you practice this more regularly, you’ll find your own personal cadence that works best for you. 

5) Don’t Binge Watch Netflix: Make an 80/20 to Do List ?

We all know we should watch less TV. But did you know that binge watching shows can mess with our brains? 

For sure, picking up a recent series and watching every episode feels good at the moment, it only leaves you feeling worse after it’s done because you now have to face the real world. 

But you know you shouldn’t watch a ton of TV. We all know it. And we all still do it. 

Just make sure you at least make a to do list first. 

I’ve found that even just writing out a to do list of all next steps helps to motivate me to take those next steps. Instead of watching TV and then coming out of the haze with no idea what to do next, I’ve got my handy dandy list and I can dive in much faster. 

But DON’T just make a boring list of all you need to do. 

Instead, take a sheet of paper and divide it in half. On the left side, write 80% and on the right 20%. If you’re familiar with the 80/20 principle, you’ll know where I’m going with this. 😉

In short, the 80% defines the part of life that will always vie for your attention. The 20% is the tasks you need to get done, but always get pushed down in priority. 80% of the movement we make forward is controlled by the 20%. 

Underneath the 80% list, write everything down that you have to do. This is like a normal to do list. Go ahead, write everything you NEED to do here such as take the dog for a walk, order groceries (cause we all do that now right?) or browse a list of jobs in my area. 

Now, on the right side underneath the 20% write everything you WANT to do that directly coincides with your goals. (Oh what’s that? Don’t know your goals? Go back to #3 above and get your goals straightened out!)

The 20% is where the money’s made. It’s what we need to focus on FIRST to move forward with our goals. 

6) Don’t Stay Down: Get Back Up ⚔️

You have two choices:

1. Stay down or
2. Get back up…

We know this, but what does it mean?

Staying down means feeling less than thinking you aren’t good enough, and wondering who might hire you, a person who’s been fired or laid off? 

Getting back up means brushing off the hurt, diving into your own wants and needs, and coming up for that sweet breath of fresh air. 

Get back up by:

• Taking stock of what happened. Ask yourself (and coworkers if possible) what went wrong? What could you have done better? Was this a long time coming?
• Refusing to believe the lie that you aren’t good enough. 
• Taking relentless and strategic action towards your goals. 

Get back up and crush your next steps. 

7) Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Help: Go, Ask for Help… ??

You’re probably thinking, “Okay ask for help???… That’s all you got for me?”

No doubt you’ve heard this from everyone everywhere. It’s boring age ol’ advice, but it WORKS. 

But what does it mean and how do you do it?

Asking for help means:

• Telling your significant other what happened. Be honest about your situation and how you feel. 
• Asking a mentor for their guidance and opinion. Yes, some people will make you feel like crap. BUT most will not. You know what happens 99% of the time you ask for help? People are more than willing to give it. 
• Use your network, talk to your family, confide in your friends.
• Being open with people when they ask you what happened. Be real and you never know what help you might get back. 
• Ask people what they would do, but always remember to go with your gut for decision making time. 

Asking for help is a practical means of getting to the next level. There is absolutely nothing wrong with getting a leg up when you can. Just return the favor once you get settled. 

8) Don’t See Misfortune: See Opportunity ?️

“Too many people miss the silver lining because they’re expecting gold. –Maurice Setter

In every bad thing that comes our way, we can find the good in it if we look hard enough. There’s always a silver lining, even if it’s hard to find. 

If you were to write out your top five least desirable traits, I guarantee you’d be able to find a silver lining in each one. 

No? Don’t believe me? 

Fine… I’ll share mine here. 

Jordan’s top five least desirable traits:

1. I often quit before I get to the finish line.
   Silver lining: I am good at juggling multiple projects and always have a ton of ideas.
2. I’m terrible with directions and miss the trees for the forest.
   Silver lining: What I lack in sensing and in the ability to experience the moment, I make up for with a knack to futuristic thinking. 
3. I’m highly sensitive.
   Silver lining: I’ve learned since a young age how to channel empathetic sensitivity to put feedback to good use. 
4. I can get so focused on one task that I exclude all other inputs, even when my wife tries talking to me.
   Silver lining: Focus and deep work is a valuable skill to possess. 
5. I have a hard time having fun and don’t take breaks often enough:
   Silver lining: You can usually find me working to live out my purpose.

There is opportunity in everything. When the world shut down because of Covid-19 we also got SGN from John Krasinski, dolphins came to Venice, and I got to spend every Sunday night talking to my entire family via video call.

Just because something is bad or less than or you’re told you aren’t worthy, it’s just not true. We are all valuable and worthy. We all deserve the chance to live out our best life. 

9) Don’t Act Quickly: Reflect and Then Move Forward ?

“Don’t let someone else control what you do in life. It’s your decisions, your outcomes, your life.” Anonymous

The worst thing you can do is jump to the next thing. Most people spend their entire lives jumping from one sinking lily pad to the next. 

What’s worse? They don’t have any clue what they’re doing or why. Give yourself the gift of reflection to dive deeper into what you want and desire. 

Don’t think about your next step without first reflecting on your recent experience. I’ve found the following to be brilliant questions to ask myself whenever I’m faced with a setback:

1. What went wrong? 
2. What events led to the setback? 
3. What could I have done better?
4. What are my possible next steps?
5. Who can help me get there? 

Life is complicated. Life is hard. Life sucks sometimes…

But we can make it even just a smidge better by taking time for quiet reflection before moving on. 

10) Don’t Stay Stuck: Take Your Next Step and Crush it ?

Whenever you think, “Hey, I’ll do that tomorrow,” Know that your subconscious is just putting off something it doesn’t want you to do right now.

Tomorrow might never come. You won’t want to do it tomorrow, in a week, or in a few months anymore than you want to do it right now. 

Starting right now is your only option. 

Get in the habit of doing things right away if it will take you less than five minutes. This will train your mind to know it won’t be any easier tomorrow or later on. 

Some easy wins to get started on the road to becoming a person of action:

• Take out the trash, now.
• Take five minutes to brainstorm your life goals.
• Do 10 pushups.
• Call your parents.
• Write a note to your significant other and tell them what you appreciate about them.
• Turn off the TV.

Don’t stay stuck. Leap ahead with clarity and take the world by storm. 

Good luck and please be in touch if I can help,

-Jordan