When the going gets tough, it’s tempting to pull together and grit your teeth and bear it. But that doesn’t make the hard times any easier. A layoff — also called a job loss or a mass termination — can feel like an attack on your very existence as you stand there, watching your coworkers walk out the door one by one, wondering how you’ll ever get through this again. Remember that while being laid off is never fun, it is ultimately a temporary thing. You will get through this — and come out stronger than before. Here are a few things you need to do after a layoff so that you can move forward with new energy and enthusiasm.

Stay Educated

The first few weeks after a layoff will be a time when you’re going to want to pull away from the world a little. You’re going to want to stop reading about business for a while, and you’re going to want to stop thinking about how you’re going to support yourself. But you cannot do that. Even if it feels like the whole world has turned away from you, you have to keep busy with new things. You have to keep learning. You don’t have to do it all at once, but you do have to find a new way to keep yourself busy. You’re going to have a lot of time in your new life to catch up on reading, and you’re going to have a lot of time to study and learn new things. You might not be able to pick up a new profession right away, but you can pick up a new passion. You can learn to love something new in the world, something that you never loved before but that now has a new purpose. And that new way to keep yourself busy will give you something to look forward to when you feel like you need some escape from the world.

 

Find A New Job Immediately

When you’re ready to start looking at new careers, you have to do it right away. You have to be prepared to move forward immediately with a new job, even if that means taking on odd jobs or doing freelance work until you can find something official. You don’t have all the time in the world to get a full-time job when you’re eight months out of work, but you also don’t have all the time in the world to let yourself sit and mope. If you can find a way to keep busy and find a way to make some money, you will be able to pay your bills and get back on track with your life.

 

Spend Time With Friends and Family

You won’t have many friends in your new life, and you may even feel like family is slipping away. So you’ll want to make sure to spend as much time with them as possible before you move on. You don’t have to do it all at once, but you do have to find a new way to make time for the people you care about. You can do that by finding a new way to spend your free time. You can join a hobby you never had time for before, or you can pick up a new sport. You can take up a new pastime that will help you make time for the people in your life.

 

Eat, Sleep, and Bathe

When you’re trying to stay busy and put a new life together, you’re going to have to eat something. You can’t survive on a diet of hope and optimism, and you’re going to have to start making some real changes in your life. One of those changes is going to be in your diet. When you’re used to eating three meals a day and a snack every few hours, the idea of cutting back on your food intake is going to be daunting. You can’t do it all at once, but you can start small. Every day, you can eat a few fewer bites of food. Every week, you can cut back on a drink. And every month, you can cut a meal back in your diet. It won’t feel like you’ve changed anything at all, but you will have.

 

Exercise and Organize Yourself

When you’re trying to move forward with a new life after a layoff, you’re going to have to find a way to keep yourself busy and your mind off of the things that have gone wrong. You’re going to have to find a new way to push yourself and meet new challenges. You can do that in your free time. You can do it while you’re waiting in line at the grocery store or sitting in a doctor’s office. You can do it when you’re watching television. You can do it when you’re stuck in traffic. There are a million ways to find your new challenges and challenges yourself.

 

Never Stop Learning

You may feel like you’ve lost everything you knew about your job and the world because you can’t do it anymore, but you haven’t. You’ve lost what you knew about one particular job, one particular industry, and one particular world. Those things are still there. What has changed is your perspective on them. You are still learning, even if you’re learning how to learn in a new way. You will always be learning in a new world. You will always be learning new skills. You will always be learning new passions. You will always be learning new ways to challenge yourself and meet new challenges. You will always be learning. That’s the great thing about being alive. You’ll never stop learning.

 

Conclusion

When the going gets tough, it’s tempting to pull together and grit your teeth and bear it. But that doesn’t make the hard times any easier. A layoff — also called a job loss or a mass termination — can feel like an attack on your very existence as you stand there, watching your coworkers walk out the door one by one, wondering how you’ll ever get through this again. Keep in mind that while being laid off is never fun, it is ultimately a temporary thing. You will get through this — and come out stronger than before. Here are a few things you need to do after a layoff so that you can move forward with new energy and enthusiasm. Pragna team has been helping candidates in finding roles and also providing career counseling to those who lost their jobs. With the help of our global RPO teams, we have been successful in finding suitable roles for several candidates.