How To Cope With Unemployment

I've noticed for a while that everyday when I read the newspaper or watch the news on TV, it is always about negative information such as natural disaster, crime, celebrities' embarrassing incidents and so on. However, there is one that I think is the most demotivating is about unemployment.

Even when things are good and construction is going on all over the place, we are told that the boom time is going to end soon; companies are downsizing; staff are being made redundant; more people are going to call the street home. We are seldom told that while people are being retrenched, there are thousands more being hired at the same time. This painted a very negative picture of the overall workplace and people are worried; some may eventually develop depression out of it.

If you can't hear good news from the media, then you have to change your own interpretation of the situation you are in. Let's say that you are just being told by your boss that you have been made redundant due to economic downturn. Are you going to get depressed for weeks and complain about how bad and unfair you have been treated; why these things always happen to you; why you are retrenched and not the other person sitting next to you? It is pointless to focus on what has already happened. It is better to start thinking about what can you do with the situation that you are in. You could start sending resume to other companies and aggressively looking for work or you could even start your own business; ie. creating job for yourself!

It may be blessing in disguise that you are being made redundant. Maybe you are destined to be your own boss; to be a leader. When you work for other people, you have to work around their schedules and plans. Think of it this way, only people who don't have plan decide to work for people. There is some truth to that because if you can't plan your own life, other people will plan it for you, ie. your boss. They will decide what you have to do from 9 to 5. They are pulling all the strings and you are the puppet. You have no control of your life when you work for people. On the contrary, running your own business means you are in charge 100% of your life and destiny. You decide when to work and how much you want to earn each year. It is indeed a liberating and wonderful thing to know that you in fact can make your own future.

Buddhists believe that life is like a dream. Everything we experience is temporary. You being unemployed is also temporary, soon you will find a new job or be your own boss. All the negative thinking and worries in your mind are not permanent. Only now is real, now is the only time you can use to turn your fate around and pave the way for better future.

So if you are unemployed today, accept it and see it as an opportunity for you to do something more meaningful and fulfilling.