Growing up I was always told to never be the woman that needed a man, be the kind of woman that works hard and gets herself the stuff that she wants and needs. Being at the job that I was at for quite some time, I’ve always been proud of what I did and always considered myself very reliable and hard working. I was always 30 minutes early and always stayed 30 minutes late after work to make sure everything was in order. On all my days off I always came to work whenever anyone called out because they knew that they could depend on me.
I always gave my 110% on the job because that’s the type of person that I was, I was dedicated and always proven myself worthy. Until one day, they decided to take a different path, and they completely cleaned house. I was let go, it was the hardest day of my life, considering that I had never been let go before. I found myself depressed for days, and always wondering where did I go wrong? What could I have done differently? Why didn’t they keep me? As more time flew by the more questions I had, until finally I thought to myself, you know what I’m going to embrace this time that I have to work on myself. Written below are the 5 things that everyone should do after they’ve been let go.
1. Get 8 hours of rest
For as long as I had been working, I’ve never been able to sleep a full 8 hours. Not even on my days off, I was always on the move and always had something to do. It was just impossible to sleep in no matter how hard I tried! However, I was determined. I stayed up as late as I wanted and at night turned off all my alarms. The next day I found myself waking up around noon, I did this for about a week, I didn’t realize how much rest my body needed until I did this. Sometimes, we don’t realize either how important it is to give our bodies the rest it deserves.
2. Go to the Gym
The very best stress reliever is hitting the gym. One of my favorite things to do is run the treadmill, not only is it a lot safer than going for a run outdoors, but it also helps you feel better about yourself. I even found myself spending almost 3 hours on the treadmill, simply because of how relaxing it was I didn’t want to stop. If you don’t have a gym membership, that’s okay, most places have a community gym, if not a running around the block a couple of times still gets the job done.
3. Go out and Explore New Things
Life has so much to offer, and it’s sad to say that we miss out on a lot of things simply because we work too much and we’re always tired. I took this as an opportunity to go out and embrace all the things that were around me. You might find this as a surprise but not everything costs money, you can go hiking, go on a bike trail, visit a state park, read a book on the beach, check out an arts festival, and the list goes on and on. You can even check on Google, a lot of times they can provide you a list of free activities to do and which days you can do them.
4. Self- Reflect
Use this time to self-reflect, and think about things that you could change about yourself for the better. Things that you can do to improve your health, your resume, your life, just your over-all well-being. This is truly an important factor, it’s good to know who you truly are and where you want to be in the next five years, ten years, or fifteen years. Create a plan for yourself on what to do and how to do it. One day, you’ll look back on this day and think to yourself why haven’t I done this sooner?
5. Learn something new
It’s never too late to learn something new or to go back to school. The oldest person to graduate was 99 years old, what’s your excuse? Use this time to think about a career that you want to pursue, or maybe even just a class or two just to get you certified in something that will make your resume stand out from all the others. Most companies love someone who is a certified typist, or certified in Microsoft Excel, and can maneuver around Microsoft Word (all this of course depends on the kind of work you like). Do your research, if you have a particular interest in a certain job, find out what will make your resume stand out and do it.