Are You Afraid Of Being Fired?

Fear of failure is an issue for many, many talented people. They have “mad” skills and vision and yet can’t seem to be successful. They tend to sabotage their successful accomplishments. Fear of being fired can create the same level of sabotage for you if you’re not careful. You become swallowed up in the fear of losing your job that you sabotage yourself – and the termination you were afraid might come plays out and you find yourself without a job. In the economic climate that we have swirling around us, with unemployment continuing to rise, those with jobs may begin to see them self without a job – if they don’t mind their “p’s” and “q’s”.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself to determine if you are operating from fear:

1. Are you willing to do something unethical in order to keep your job?
2. Do you see unethical behaviors in the organization? Do you turn the other way?
3. Are you unwilling to speak up when success is in jeopardy?
4. Do you allow others, including your boss, to bully you or harass you?
5. Do you avoid conflict at any cost?

There are so many more questions to ask, however, I’m more concerned about you being aware of how you are showing up in the organization – in the job you are holding onto if that is true for you. I am by no means conveying that you should be a loose cannon at work. Nor am I suggesting you quit if things are intolerable. What I am saying is evaluate the value of the job you are working if fear is what motivates what you do and how you do it. Operating from fear does not serve you, the customers or the organization. I am suggesting that you begin to develop a strategy for your future.

What is the worse thing that could happen if you are fired? You could lose everything! That is the worse – however, there are jobs out there. Are they hard to come by? Yes, many of them are difficult to get, given the competition. But it is not impossible! Being fired can be the end of one thing and the beginning – a new beginning that takes you to new levels, and places you may never see if you just hold onto what you currently have out of fear. You are not stuck!

There is an old axiom that says, “When you are stuck, take action?” In other words, rather than feeling like you are a victim or at the mercy of someone else’s foolishness, create your future. You determine what you want to do and how you want to do it. Go out on your terms. Set up you world or reset your world so that if you do get fired or you decide to leave, you have income, you have a way to take care of your living expenses. Life may need to get simpler for you, but that is can be a good thing.

The fear of being fired is very real for many of you. I am not attempting to minimize it. What I want to do is challenge you to take a look at your life through a different lens. Being fired can be VERY traumatic, but it doesn’t have to be the end of the world. Determine what you want to do, get a plan. What have you wanted to do with your life, that you haven’t had time to do? How can you take something like losing your job and turn it into a phenomenal opportunity?

Image Credit: sxc.hu