Make adversity a milestone

THE hangover is over. You have spent another sleepless night, angry, bitter, confused and depressed.

Its Monday morning and you are in no hurry to get up. After all you have no job to go to.

Why did it happen to you? Where do you go from here... questions, which now constantly haunt you.

Adversity is painful yet it could be a wonderful teacher. Here's a layman's guide to cope with situations adverse and unexpected.

Acknowledge that adversity is part of life. Greater the adversity, more the pain and devastation.

It can take a long time to fill the void, recover emotionally and put your life on track again. Adversity is part of growing up and aging and hopefully becoming wiser and learning to fail, intelligently.

Each individual creates his or her own definition of success, as it is subjective. Success can be viewed as an on-going process, whereas failure is a single event or experience.

Like any major life changing events, losing a job suddenly should be viewed in perspective.

Try to view it as an opportunity of a lifetime; opportunity to take stock of yourself, get a firmer grip on your career, chart out and implement a career plan and consider taking risks which you otherwise would not have considered.

Are you one of the fortunate ones whose pink slip was accompanied by a severance pay and professional counseling to help you through this period and also to aid in your job search?

If so, make the best use of this period: you have the chance to look for a job, the right kind, while being paid. You have the luxury to explore all your options and set new goals.

Teach yourself to be more resilient so that you can bounce back from difficulties rapidly— new realities and changed circumstances, become change proficient and cope well with crisis. Resilient people have a competitive advantage.

What makes problems so dispiriting is that often you can't see past them.

This mindset saps your ability to take constructive action. Train yourself to visualise a positive future.

One of the impacts of adversity is that its consequences tend to bleed into other areas of your life. Insecurity in one area makes other areas feel endangered. Cut it out! Once you've figured out where and what your real problem is, isolate it from everything else.

Some problems are best handled alone while with some you need help. Simply sharing your feelings will make you feel supported and it is better than keeping anxiety bottled up.

Friends can provide a neutral perspective and information that will help you toward a solution.

Life can full of complications and setbacks. This doesn't mean you are a failure--only human.

PADMA

padma.hyd@cnkonline.com