Fired from my job gave me the feeling of frustration. Today, I’m thankful for that experience.
In the summer of 2014, I was ushered to the conference with my boss. I closed the door behind me. Inside the room was our HR manager, drinking her coffee. She took one last sip and motioned me to sit to a chair opposite my boss and the HR manager.
She handed me the pink slip.
She started talking, but I did not understand what she said. It was like watching her mouth in slow motion, and me trying to figure out the words coming out from her mouth.
How will I support my 5-year old toddler? How am I going to pay my mortgage? T
These images were reeling in my mind.
For starters, I worked for a start-up company. This is not just any start up, but a pharmaceutical start up company, where only one out of ten survives.
I thought I was prepared for the situation when they will ax me and showed the exit but looks like I was not.
The company had been downsizing already for the past year. For the past year, I saw the guy from the warehouse let go. The man in charge of receiving handed the pink slip.
I got desensitized watching a lot of my friends pick up their stuffs crying. Still, I found comfort in reminding myself that I got a Ph.D., and they need me.
But, they showed me the exit.
At that conference room, the HR manager kept talking. My mind was juggling the responsibility of raising a small toddler without an income.
My mind went back to the pictures of myself and co-workers working and being fired. I know the funds were dwindling and they needed to let go of people. The last straw was when our Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder, the guy who oversees the research, and one of my close friend, was literally dragged out from his office.
Dragged.
It was awful. It was the scene of a corporate jungle, alpha males vying for the top position.
That day, when I gathered my belongings from my office and put it into the box, I went straight to my Kia Sorrento park close to my lab.
I was depressed the next few days, but forced myself to apply for jobs, any jobs that my skill is relevant.
The next few days, I hated the company I worked for a long time. The thought brought me more depressed. I have a Ph.D. and I was just left in the side walk like a garbage?
The saddest part was when I would stay in the bed until 11 AM or even 1 PM. I missed breakfast with my family and playing with my toddler. I would drag myself to wake up and home chores were painful. Even when I need to put the garbage in the driveway, I would think of just driving.
Simple stuffs that I could easily do stifled me.
Then one time, my husband was preparing for his part time job to support us, he asked me if I could check little Riley in his bed sleeping.
When my husband left, I was still in the bed. I woke up and heard little Riley watching his favorite Disney movie.
I told myself, enough is enough. This is what I did, I counted backwards 3–2–1 and stood up. (I know one guru teaching this, but I discovered it myself).
It started with counting backwards to get my ass out of bed (I soon learned that the army uses this technique to prepare warriors everyday, or kindergarten school teacher to prepare kindergarten kids).
The simple 3–2–1 woke me up fast every morning and have breakfast with my husband. There are times when I was still sluggish, and I would count 3–2–1 and I primed my mind to be ready for the day.
Of course there are time when 3–2–1 counting will not work, and that’s where I incorporated gratitude journals and morning priming (I use Tony Robbins early morning priming with Oprah, search it on YouTube if you want to practice it). Later, I’ll tell you how Gratitude Journals helped me in my journey to fight breast cancer.
WHY DOES COUNTING BACKWARDS WORK?
I don’t want to bore you about the scientific details of why counting backwards work, but I want to tell you the story of how our state of mind can change us at the moment.
Here’s how do it.
If I don’t want to work on something, like presentations or work on my ad campaign for my business, I asked Alexa Echo Dot to play Viva La Vida, and it pumps me up.
Athletes do this. Look at elite athletes walking to the court or field with their Beats head phone wrapped in their head.
I was just copying them.
When I’m alone, and Cold Play is playing in the background, I jump to the beat and pump my fist in the air and shouts “Here we go”.
Try it.
Tony Robbins always say that the most important thing to a breakthrough is your State, your state of mind.
Later, I’ll discuss the other two things that can produce a breakthrough. But I want to tell you that last week, when I was about to go to the bedroom to slack off and watch Netflix, guess what, I pumped myself by asking Alexa to play Cold Play.
I grabbed my Laptop and worked on my Ad copy on my business.
Today, I’m working on my business. And in the end, I credit my experience of being fired to who and what I am now.
I remember my kid asking me about basketball, “If Michael Jordan was cut from his varsity team when he was in high school, would you consider him the GOAT (Greatest of all time)?”
There was a pause, and I answered.
“I think he will not be Michael Jordan if he wasn’t cut from his team. He’s MJ because he was cut from his high school varsity team, without that high school incident, he’s not MJ.”
My son asked again, “What do you mean?”
“He will not work harder if he wasn’t cut from that team, and that experience made him the GOAT”.
