The prospect of redundancy can often be a time of uncertainty and distress, perhaps with questions of “Why me? Why now? Or what did I do that was wrong?” This can be at the forefront of our minds. Dealing with change that you don’t feel prepared for can feel like climbing a mountain.
Being in the throes of prospective redundancy certainly threw up anxiety in my case as I had a deep desire to stay where I was. Whilst not the perfect utopia, I loved the easiness of my teaching post in a private boarding school. It was comfortable and my relationships with staff, children and their parents were strong.
The school was in a beautiful setting, with high standards, great staff, supportive parents, small classes and an amazingly well behaved school population. What teacher could not appreciate and love working in such an environment? I could easily have stayed, put my feet up and glided to retirement.
However, I was also aware that there was no longer a feeling of being challenged and I had a sense of a level of coasting, stagnation and complacency creeping in.
For most of my career I had used the private sector as a form of escape or sanctuary to avoid the possible overwhelm from the more challenging, rough and tumble behavior that mainstream schools can bring.
I had been toying with the idea of leaving my current teaching job when my inner voice of wisdom came knocking with strong impulses to leave and return to the mainstream system, from which I had hastily fled many, many years prior. I was psychologically gearing myself up for a change, but I was battling with the longing to hold onto comfort and the feeling of safety of what I already knew I could manage.
The holding on to my comfort was winning… the other inner-voice (the not-so-wise one) was holding on for just another year… “I’ll do just another year and then I’ll look for another post…,” “I’ll see the next year’s group of students through, then I’ll go.”
I had just made up my mind to stay when God called, through the form of my head teacher, who announced that a redundancy had to be made between me and another member of staff.
It was like my calling card had come in. At the moment of the announcement I had an image of one of those pedalos you rent in Mediterranean beach resorts that you paddle out to sea for a bit of a play. When your hour is up, they flag you back to the beach with a round sign and your boat number.
I was being called in, “Your time is up! Time to go somewhere else where you can expand your service, your love and your own personal development.”
I’d had my playtime and now it was time to roll up my sleeves and move to my next point of unfolding. I decided to take voluntary redundancy much, I am sure, to the relief of the second teacher!
Certainty enabled me to start applying for other jobs in the mainstream sector and all seemed plain sailing until self-doubt began to creep in and I started to wonder if taking the voluntary redundancy had been the right choice.
I allowed things to get internally messy, but there was no going back as I had great support from friends, family and my colleagues. I was also aware of the immense opportunity for growth, expansion and a new beginning that awaited me if I chose to go down the voluntary redundancy route.
The job application and interview process began and I learnt much about each school I visited and how I felt in relation to each one.
I trusted the feedback I felt from my body. Sometimes I felt a tight pressure across my chest, or a constriction through my whole body. Many times my understanding and feelings were confirmed, so I forged ahead trusting my choices – after all, my true wise, inner-voice had got me this far.
I am glad to say that out of the many schools I visited, one felt completely right. Throughout my visit I felt an openness, lightness and joy through my body, even though it was a school a few years ago I would not have touched with a barge pole. I was offered a post as a senior teacher, with training to support me in my new role.
So with some procrastination but an overwhelming desire to move forward and to evolve, and not to stagnate, I have taken a step up in my career and, more importantly, in my life. I am now ready, able and willing to take on greater responsibility for others and for myself.
By saying goodbye to old comforts, being ready to commit to work in the mainstream sector, I know there is much for me to appreciate about myself and about the choices that have come with it.
So I can say wholeheartedly that for me redundancy was a gift from heaven and the nudge I needed to move on and take the next steps of expansion.
Perhaps there should be a statement when announcing redundancy – “A wonderful opportunity awaits for renewal and growth. Who wants to take it?”
With enormous heartfelt appreciation for Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine for showing there is always a next step to be taken, which leads to a forever expansion.
By Anonymous
Further Reading:
Why Work? What is Work About?
Work Is Medicine
Working Full Time Again And Relishing It
The Truth about Serge Benhayon 
“A wonderful opportunity awaits for renewal and growth. Who wants to take it?” An awareness that every cross-road in life is an offering to expand and deepen our purpose in life.
Reading this blog was a great reminder that I’d been working in a comfortable environment. Working part time, with the other days being taken by what, I couldn’t even think of. Then along came an opportunity and it all happened in one go, moving house, starting this secondment, and going full time, definitely positioned me out of my comfort zone. It was a steep learning curve and continues to be so.
Despite this job being a temporary position, I have no idea where I will go to next even though my permanent position is still available for the time being.
Every opportunity is an opportunity to evolve, it’s how we are and observe it to be, that makes the difference. We can adapt if we allow what’s a head of us as THE opportunity to so.
Comfort is a draw card that can keep us in stagnancy and away from opportunities and growth and evolution. But when we allow ourselves to be challenged step out of our comfort zones then life really begins to open up – comfort is gone and we do not know the next step but in that uncertainty lies the certainty of growth.
Awesome blog Anon, and it shows us how life is not really about comfort and making a niche where we can fee safe and left alone, but rather to make life about growth and evolution and connection with others.
Life is full of opportunities, but how much are we willing to see it as such?
What do we choose when the opportunity presents, do we choose comfort, or evolution?
Henrietta, I’m leaning more and more about ‘life is full of opportunities’, I wasn’t willing to see it as that. Bought up in a world that working with the one employer was it, gone are those days where we used to receive the golden watch for working in one employment till retirement.
Movements in work environments are occurring more and more, with some people making five year plans and, move onto the next. Are they willing to see it as an opportunity, or is it that they have such an unsettlement, they’re hoping the next job will do it. Much to ponder here too…
Appreciation and expansion or evolution go together and thus who would not live for the evolution that is openly available when we let go of our attachment to life being a comfortable existence.
Comfort and security can be a real killer even though it is highly sought after and seen as the ultimate prizes. More and more I can feel it brings a tension to my body which knows there’s more to life than staying cemented in place.
Could it be comfort comes with a complication of being in comparison, and thus we are judging one thing to be better than another?
When change is unfolding it’s a completely different experience understanding what is happening from our soul and trusting our inner wisdom, as opposed to reaction, emotions and not trusting what we sense. Is our intention evolution, is our perspective just survival and security, and viewing life from pictures?
“Time to go somewhere else where you can expand your service, your love and your own personal development.” – such joy in this statement. What a way to look at redundancy – or any new change / direction in our lives.
Seeing change and challenges as opportunities is indeed refreshing – our perspective can make a huge difference in how we handle the outcomes.
At the time we may not realise all that is on offer with a situation, ‘I can say wholeheartedly that for me redundancy was a gift from heaven and the nudge I needed to move on and take the next steps of expansion.’
How we are forever being asked to step up in the quality of power, truth and love.
This is a beautiful example of how letting go of comfort we are supported to truly evolve, the comfort feels snug but keeps us stuck and doesn’t offer new opportunities to expand and grow.
Speaking for myself, comfort has kept me in stagnation many a time, but letting go of the comfort and feeling what’s next, expansion truly is offered.
This is great to read of your wholehearted embrace of an opportunity and all the learning and growth that comes with it, and dealing with the doubts and procrastination along the way. There is always more to learn, and when we feel that sense of comfortable complacency, it’s time to listen to that nudge to expand, before the sense of comfort becomes stifling.
I love this – because if in one year we took every challenging situation as an opportunity to grow and evolve rather than an opportunity to step down – that would be an incredibly rich and fulfilling year.
Taking the opportunity to evolve yourself you offer the same opportunities to all the children you will be meeting and teaching in your new role.
That is so true Mary, the more we grow and we learn about ourselves, the more we can then offer others.
Redundancy often comes with an unease as to what is next, yet it we stay steady with ourselves many opportunities arise and it can be the start of something much grander as we step up to what is next appreciating every moment.