Six Lessons From Being Unemployed

I've been pondering life's lessons lately. Namely that we do need to stop and take stock in the lessons that we've learned or else we run the risk of not really conciously learning them. Opportunities for growth happen all the time (especially as an unemployee), and yet we might just subconciously adapt to the situation without really marking the moment with a, "Hey, this is a great lesson for me." And in learning that lesson conciously, we can improve our approach to the world. 

One of my new ideas is to force my family (okay, encourage might be a better verb) to pen their top ten lessons for the year and to read them aloud to the each other at Christmas Dinner - every year from now on. I want to know what they learned. But more importantly, I want them to know what they learned.

That's why this man's post drew my attention. His name is Jeffrey Metzger (a resume consultant on the side, as fate would have it) and he has a list of six things he learned from being unemployed. A lot of this dovetails nicely with my thinking around unemployment. He goes into more detail, so feel free to read his post. 

1. Treat your job search like a job
2. Set a goal each day
3. Learn something new
4. Get out of the house
5. Take care of yourself!
6. Follow-up, Follow-up, Follow-up

The guy got a job in five measly weeks. So if you need a resume consultant, maybe you should contact him.

This thought intrigued me so I started looking for more people who wrote down their lessons from being unemployed.

Lynn Truong learned that it was easier to save money when it wasn't optional to save money, that leftovers were yummy, and that she was able to restore healthier eating and sleeping habits as an unemployee.

Utah Deal Diva learned that companies you owe your bills to will work with you if you ask, that most luxuries are fairly easy to live without, that using less of everything had very little impact on quality of life and that selling her shit was pretty liberating.

G.E. Miller discovered the importance of networking and learned that the challenge of unemployment can bring out the best in you. G.E also learned even when you think you've cut your budget to the bone, there's always more that can be cut.

Elizabeth Hyland learned that it takes real strength to ask for help (not weakness) and that cooking her own food was a great creative outlet, not to mention healtheir and cheaper.

KM Wein's biggest lesson was the one about follow up, but then followed that up with a stream of lessons about social media - one of which was to strike up a conversation with the company you want to work for in the social media realm. Not a bad idea, actually.

So what have you learned this year? Got your ten things already?

Comments

[Jeffrey Metzger]

Thanks so much for the mention. I'm a true believer in the positive approach, and it really helped be get through that difficult period.