There is an old joke they make about people who have been laid off. The former employer “gave them the opportunity to seek other employment.” Despite the cynicism of this euphemism, there is some truth in it. Just as people who went blind as adults sometimes say that going blind is the best thing that ever happened to them – it gave them purpose, it made them realize things about life – so you might learn from being fired that you weren’t all that happy in that job anyway. As perverse as it seems, you’ve been given a freedom otherwise lacking to you.

What this means is that you’re a free agent, and the next link in your ladder could go in any of many directions. You don’t, after all, have to take the first available job that is exactly the same as the one that let you go. Take a minute. Breathe. What is it you want out of life?

Now is the time to take a moment and envision where you would like to be ten or fifteen years from now. There are so many choices, so many possibilities, that you might find it bewildering. “I’d like to make it through the day first,” you might say, “and let tomorrow’s tomorrow worry about itself.” There is wisdom in saying such a thing, but there is also wisdom in having a vision. A sense for having a goal gives direction.

What values do you hold? What sort of person would you like to be? Is it having wealth, or at least a comfortable amount of wealth? Stability? A solid marriage? Would you like to be an expert at something, or would you like to manage a team of people?

So often opportunity surprises us, but we can have a sense of trajectory, at least, by realizing that the best men seek out opportunity. It takes vision to know what in fact is an opportunity in the first place.

When you choose your next job, don’t decide it based on who is most eager to hire you on the spot. Instead, choose it in terms of whether the job is going to take you in the direction of where you finally want to be. Perhaps securing such a job might be harder, and take more work, but it will be worth it, for you will be working with purpose and will have direction.

Then, at the end of your life, you will see not an errant path of cul-de-sacs and dead-ends, but a logical progression of personal unfolding of your career and your personality itself. Having a vision makes a difference. Having this vision will make each day’s decisions simpler and more secure.

 

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