The Bliss of Being Fired

Warning:

Being fired may have unexpected side effects including but not limited to fresh insights, significant discomfort with the status quo, uncertainty, unexpected freedom and some indigestion. Please consult your self before committing to any radical plans of action. If you find yourself experiencing unanticipated bliss, please call your friends and celebrate immediately.

In the middle of last year, I graduated college, moved home briefly, and then moved from San Francisco to Kansas City in order to pursue a dream of working in animation. For two weeks, it seemed like I had, “arrived.”

Then I got fired. Excuse me, I was “laid off,” to use a more palatable term. But what is the difference when you’re locked in to a six month lease, in a city where you don’t know anybody, and you’ve got no income?

When you get fired, you start to ask questions. I suppose mine were not typical since I had only been with the company two weeks, but I still had a huge number of obvious questions needed to be answered:

• “What am I going to do?”
• “Will I be able to make it?”
• “How could they bring me out here and then do this to me?”

There were a few questions that I hadn’t expected though:

• “Am I already coasting after two weeks?”
• “How am I going to move from where I am now, to where I want to be?”
• “How can I keep this from happening again?”

These questions began to open my eyes.

Sadly, as soon as the prospect of, “job security” arrived three weeks later, I latched on without a second thought to the radical transformation I had been in the middle of.

Alas, security was shortly ripped away. Again. Due to an obscure obscene tax technicality, funding for the project was gone, and I was working for promises instead of pay. For five weeks, the entire team heard, “This will be sorted out soon.”  To the owner/director’s credit, it was.

I changed in those five weeks.  It was far more eye opening than the first stint of unemployment. The more I worked, the more I became dissatisfied with one echoing fact: As long as I am dependent on a job for my livelihood, I have no power, little choice and even less leverage.

As long as I am dependent on a job for my livelihood, I have no power, little choice and even less leverage.

My post-collegiate employment tragedy may be one of the best things that has ever happened to me.  But at the time, it sucked. When confronted with the possibility of having no job, I was afraid.

I was forced to choose between shifting my paradigm or giving up my dreams.

Even in the dark moments of uncertainty, I knew what my choice would be.

The Trap of Job Security

Job security is a myth. As long as employers do enough to keep employees, they retain the power to fire or lay you off at any time.  Why would you engage in such a clearly unbalanced relationship?

The entire system is dedicated to continuing its own parasitic existence. You are kindly placed into the system from the moment you step into a classroom to  your proud graduation day to the satisfying first day of your career.

Nine times out of ten, the point of a job is money.  You begin because you want to change the world, but you begin to trade your time for their money in order to survive. Most people continue to demand more and more money for their time in hopes that one day they can enjoy their golden years.  It is a comfortable trap the allows you to accept canned answers and shut your eyes to your own potential.

Linchpin by Seth Godin was published this year. I cannot recommend it highly enough to you. Seth encourages you to be indespensible. I sincerely agree that you must be a linchpin to the passions your life, but would caution you to only be a linchpin in another organization if it is a true calling and not an economic convenience.

Making it Work

When you earn a living outside the system you are at the mercy of customers, of clients and the ebb and flow of the market. There can be even more stress when you don’t know where your next pay day is coming from.

Sounds great, right?

It does if you are excited by the idea of being totally responsible for yourself.  Any investment you make into your own endeavors stays with you, no matter where you go.  Can you say the same for the hours you put in at your job?

Imagine that a “worst case scenario” comes to pass and all of a sudden you are jobless.

What would you do? How would you generate an income? Could you live off of savings temporarily to get a new idea off of the ground?  What could you do to make money if you absolutely had to without having a job?

You have an amazing resource between your ears. Use it!

Embrace Bliss

Life is more than surviving. It is loving and thriving.

Stop deferring your bliss. Embrace it. You can enjoy the Now.

You have the power in your life. If you are not living in a way that is absolutely fulfilling you, you must ask yourself why. What paradigm are you operating by? Is it serving your interests or has it given away your power to bills, your job or your excuses?

If you want to embrace bliss, embrace your own power and take total responsibility for your life.

Where is the real security? Where is the real safety net? I would vehemently argue that true safety and security lies in being totally responsible.

If you take this path, you will work harder than you ever did at a job. You will have to stretch yourself. You will have to learn: either specific skill or different aspects of running your own business.

Being fired made me stop and look at what I am doing with my life and where I am going. Finding those answers brought me bliss.

The bliss of being fired is learning that at the end of the day, you am in the driver’s seat of your own life. Having my eyes opened to that has changed my life. Let it change yours.

Do not give away your time, your life, for a price less than the fulfillment of your dreams.

What do your dreams look like?  What would it look like to live your bliss?

Tagged as: Awareness, grok, growth, Personal Development, professional, self improvement self-awareness, work