Life After A Beautiful Mess

The other day, someone asked me how I've stayed so positive after losing my job in July.

My initial response was, "I HAVE NO FREAKING CLUE," but after giving it some thought, I realized they were right. There's been a shift in my attitude and perspective on life ... for the better. Crazy, huh? Let me explain.

A recent auction find. 🔮

I'm writing this post four months after losing my job. If you want to know all the juicy details about that, there aren't any. The company I worked for decided to scale back and focus more on family and less on business. If there were a way to keep me there forever, they would have. We were (and still are) extremely close ... like family.

There are no hard feelings between us at all. I was given a really generous severance and have felt well taken care of, considering the circumstances, for which I'm incredibly thankful.

But yeah, as many of you know, I spent over nine years living and breathing A Beautiful Mess. I loved my job and felt like I was "set" for life. Maybe it was naive thinking, but that's how I felt—like the brand itself was completely indestructible.

After getting the news that I was laid off, I panicked and spent the majority of the day in bed. I also had a big surgery planned a couple of weeks later, so my mind was shifting back and forth.

Everyone's situation is different, but knowing that I didn't have to cash out my retirement fund to pay my mortgage and bills was a HUGE sigh of relief for me. I had a little buffer. Once I was healed up from my hysterectomy, I started the job search.

Looking for a job at 40 is A LOT different than when you're 30. I have way more "boxes to check." I would describe the process as mind-numbing with small bursts of encouragement.

Considering everything that's happened this year, I haven't completely lost my mind. In fact, I have a positive spark inside of me that I didn't know existed.

Here are a few things that have helped me in the past four months:

1. I started this blog. I never planned on writing a blog. Ever. My goal has never been to become an influencer or make it big— I just wanted to have a creative outlet other than Instagram. I soon realized how therapeutic it felt to write blog posts, check comments, start an Amazon affiliate program, and share my photos on Pinterest. These are all things I did at A Beautiful Mess, and now I can still do them. I had no idea how much I needed this until I started doing it.
   

2. Branching out. Having severance pay has made a huge difference in this situation for obvious reasons. But the idea of running out of money has always been at the back of my mind. Initially, I didn't think about doing freelance or part-time work. Still, after sharing my situation on Instagram, I had two friends (who own local businesses) reach out to me about occasional work. The balance between looking for jobs and working a little has been good for my brain.
   

3. Networking. Yeah, we hear the term "networking" all the time, but I realized I needed to take it to another level to make things happen. The first thing I did when I started looking for a job was update my decade-old resume. Never in my life did I think that I would put my photo on a resume, but here we are. I'm proud of the resume I put together (with the help of some smart friends), which I shared on social media, first on Instagram and then on Facebook. I had over 40 people re-share it on Facebook, and it resulted in several job interviews.
   

4. Changing my surroundings. I make it a point to leave my house every day and surf LinkedIn from a coffee shop. It has made me realize that I didn't get out of the house enough while working remotely for ABM. Like, at all. Doing something as simple as changing my surroundings has made me feel better.
   

5. Staying busy. I know this might sound annoying, but I rarely get bored. Maybe it's because I'm not good at sitting around, but I try to keep my days full. Right now, I have more free time than I'm used to having, and life will eventually go back to being really busy, work-wise. I try to remind myself every day that this is temporary, and I should try to enjoy the extra time while I have it.
   

6. Embrace hobbies. I have been buying and re-selling vintage decor for over 15 years, and it's truly one of my favorite things to do. It makes me happy. So, while this isn't a new hobby for me, I've been listing more items than I usually do (between FB Marketplace, Etsy, and IG stories) to make extra money. I also started a series on this blog called 10 Favorite Things. Yes, this is exactly what A Beautiful Mess does weekly, but I enjoyed writing those posts. Lol. I make a little extra money from Amazon commissions between the blog posts I write and the things I share on Instagram. I don't care if I make $5.00 from it— it's fun for me regardless.
   

7. Moral support. This is the most important thing on my list. The advice, support, and encouragement I've received from my family and friends have been my biggest game-changer. Listening to what someone says is one thing, but believing them changes everything. Everyone I've talked to during this big transition in my life has told me the same thing. "We aren't worried about you at all. You're going to find something even better than you had before!" Wait. What? I guess I'm trying to say that if you hear something enough, you will start to believe it. I've truly been surrounded by positivity this whole time. And I can feel it.

I hope this post is helpful if you're in a similar situation in life right now. I tell myself that things will work out and be OK every day. That doesn't mean I don't have bad days. Trust me.

But I really do believe that I was laid off from my job because there is something better out there for me. It was time for a change, and I couldn't wait to find out where I landed. Until then ... chin up. Let's be happy while we're here.

xoxo, Jacki