Excerpts from
Susan T. Blake's e-book:
Remember to Look Up:
35 Tips for Making a Comeback
in Your Job, Career, or Life
Making a Comeback When Times Are Tough
Everyone encounters setbacks. It doesn’t really matter whether you’ve lost a job, lost a loved one through divorce or death, or lived through a natural disaster: Life-changing events happen to everyone at some point, and when your life has been disrupted, you have to make a Comeback. (Or not—it’s actually up to you.)
Sometimes the setback is less life-changing, but it’s a setback none-the-less: A project you’ve been working on has been cancelled (or failed in some way), you’ve been re-assigned, your department has been reorganized. Now what? You may have decisions to make, but you just don’t feel capable of making them at this moment.
Or maybe your life hasn’t been disrupted, but you’re feeling stuck and you need a Reframe. Reframes can disrupt your life too, so be careful what you ask for. Don’t worry, though—This little handbook can help with that, too.
The 35 tips in this handbook are all life lessons from my life. Some require discipline, others only openness. My life isn’t your life, but we’re not so different. At times we all have to rethink who we are, what we want, and what we want to be doing.
If you choose to Reframe or Make a Comeback, come on in! Hopefully this will help, and maybe give you a laugh or two at the same time. And that always helps.
1. Give Yourself a Break
Some things are within our control, and some things are not. Shit happens. We make mistakes. We fail. The challenge is to learn from it and move on.
At some point in my life I realized that as long as I tried to be perfect, I would always fail. Ouch! A life doomed to failure! That’s a depressing thought. So I decided to focus on being Darned Good. I succeed pretty frequently at that. Not always—I still fail. But I’d rather fail, admit it, learn from it, and move on than be stuck in always comparing myself to Perfection and always failing. Know what that leads to? Cover-ups. Dishonesty. Despair. Who needs that?
So you need a Comeback. Maybe life dealt you a cruel blow. Maybe you did it to yourself. Maybe it was a combination. Accept it, learn from it, make amends if necessary (and possible), and let’s move on.
Do you know the Serenity Prayer? “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
Whether or not you want to involve God, those three steps are a pretty good place to start a Comeback.
Susan offers 34 more Comeback tips in her beautiful e-book - see note below for download information.
© 2010 Susan T. Blake
Shared with permission of the author
Susan T. Blake is a consultant, coach, writer, and photographer who lives in Northern California with her two cats, Abby and Rocket. She loves gardening, bicycling, and singing, and she is a self-confessed jigsaw puzzle addict. "Remember to Look Up" grew out of her experiences as a widow, laid-off corporate professional and woman with a stubborn curious streak.
Susan shares more of her wisdom on her website - where you can download (for a limited time: no cost, no sign-up) the e-book that the intro and tip #1 (above) came from.
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