When your life falls apart, what to do next? | Andrea de Michaelis – Creating my own reality, one thought at a time

I watched 2 movies, very different but with similar premise: Up In The Air with George Clooney and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty with Ben Stiller and Kristen Wiig. Both begin with a large corporation downsizing, leaving hundreds of employees wondering how they’re going to make it after giving half their life to a company that just let them go. Half the sessions I do are callers in that same situation, asking for guidance, asking for their next step. Here are my thoughts.

It helps to have a few basic goals, skills to qualify you for those goals and to have a Plan B. Not everyone has the time to daydream about Plan B, what another life may look like. They may find themselves working several jobs to support a family with barely time to sleep. But if you’re gonna be successful in being flexible to navigate whatever life throws at you, you gotta get a Plan B.

I didn’t have a Plan B until I was 40 and tiring of paralegal work. Before I left, I paid off all the credit cards. I stopped buying. I stopped needing new stuff. I was on my own, no responsibility for anyone but myself. My Plan B was to figure it out as best I could when the time came. I knew I could live on much less than I’d been making, and I could downsize my assets if I needed to, then earn $$ cleaning, cooking, sewing, yardwork if I had to.

Of course, I had specialized skills (legal doc prep, notary, etc) so I was able to earn good income doing it on my own. But if I didn’t have skills that today’s marketplace wanted, my JOB ONE would be to learn new and marketable skills.

When you decide to learn a new skill, even if it’s not what you ultimately want to end up doing, all sorts of opportunities open up to you. You will run into people and circumstances that help you along the way, that light new paths for you to consider.

So actually the REAL JOB ONE is to use your self talk as a reminder that you have inner guidance. When you use your self-talk to remind yourself that you have access to inner guidance that can lead you in the right direction for all decisions, you become very powerful.

When you tell yourself that, your mind starts looking for evidence of it and attracting guidance and inspiration to you. And unless you drown out that inner guidance by having your attention on saythe troubles on tv or radio or news reports, you’ll be inspired to action that can change your world — right now, right where you are — for the better.