#18 From Limbo to Launch

Thriving through life's economic doldrums.

There are about 6.1 million people in the United States who are unemployed and looking for work.¹ In addition to loss of income, studies have shown correlation between unemployment and mental health problems: the long-term unemployed have an at least twofold risk of mental illness compared to employed individuals,² a link between sudden job loss or ongoing unemployment with elevated depression, anxiety, and psychological distress, and a correlation between unemployment and higher rates of depression, anxiety, and substance use.³

It shouldn’t be underestimated: Navigating major career changes—even welcomed ones—can wreck havoc on a previously ordered, financial predictable, and socially-nested way of living.

Lacking work and a clear raison d'être, many people conclude their lives have no value and this tends to cascade.

When I was going through a career change, I thought it would be interesting to research pop culture remedies.⁴ The results were neatly packaged principles; macroscopic abstracted prescriptions addressed to the ideal: admonitions towards mindfulness, acceptance, and perspective.

And while I certainly endorse those practices, one shouldn’t lean too heavily upon them; meta-analysis conveys what a statistic could or would do, but can never tell you what you should do—an individual remedy being forever beyond its scope due to the complexity and richness of the human experience.

Bias Towards Action

One quintessential attitude we have in the West is this bias towards action; generally, the individual’s usefulness to society is measured by what is controlled, managed, or produced through one’s prodigious efforts.

The consequences of this statistico-economic regime have manifested two great outcomes: comfort and convenience. Life is demonstrably (and to many magnitudes) more tolerable for more people than ever. By nearly every metric, this is the best time (for Humans) to be alive!

Driving catalysts to these outcomes are tremendous amounts of individual activity; the busier we are, reckons the Continental mindset, the more products to market, and in due course, the more value to society. Everything rests upon forward movement down the distribution chain, of which human activity is an essential activator.

For an individual to abruptly lose forward momentum in career, or employment, is to be as a great white shark which suddenly loses the capacity to move forward—a process known as ram ventilating—this is to say: an existential threat.

Speed Doesn’t Kill: Stopping Instantly Does

Though suddenly ceasing one’s productive activity—be that through work, a title change, or role within a social structure—doesn’t actually cause physical harm, a disequilibrating change within any of these domains can trigger the ‘freak-out’ mode in the brain; the ‘fight-freeze-flight’ pathway.⁵⁶⁷ And because of this perceived existential angst, we rush to return to gainful employment—to revalidate our contrived persona as a ‘productive member of society.’

Yet sometimes resuming one’s former work must be delayed or is unpropitious, and anyway outside of one’s control. What to do in the meantime?

Uselessness is a Problem—of Perception

Are you ever truly unemployed? Can there really be such a thing?

Fact: Even if you’re not receiving a paycheck you possess great utility, value, and a potential to transform your environment—this potential limited only by the vitality of the imagination.

And should you find yourself yearning to re-enter the workforce, yet needing a solid foundation, consider this your new mission: Reorganize yourself and your surrounding area, starting first with your home and then reaching out from there. Do this work with an exuberant spirit!

An initial step may be to unburden yourself from the maintenance of material possessions through selling or donation. Conversely, you might decide to reinvest in yourself; updating work skills or even moving to a location that values your current skill-set. Whatever you do, do it as a symbol of your commitment towards growth.

Free Economic Experiments

But what if it’s been a while since you’ve been in the ‘working world,’ what then? How do you regain the confidence to express yourself with credibility?

Sometimes all it takes to lift your sails out of life’s doldrums is a dawning of self-awareness. If you’re still struggling to envision yourself as an vital participant in the economy, try these experiments.

1. Place your hand to your chest. For a moment, allow yourself to drop your thoughts as you simply observe the rhythm of your breathing. How many breaths do you take in a minute?

   Observe there is work going on inside of you; your lungs are fully employed in the flawless and critical task of keeping you vitalized by exchanging old oxygen for new. Isn’t that exactly what occurs in the economy: a respiration of currency? Your lungs are constantly exchanging ‘oxygen dollars’ for ‘carbon dioxide cents.’

2. Do you ever blink? Of course you do—many times per minute, and mostly unconsciously. Is this an ‘unemployed’ system? If you think of each blink as a replenishment of funding needed for the project of your vision, you’ll begin to reconceptualize the idea of economy as a mere quantification of value.

   Reattend to the part of you that’s demonstrably ALWAYS employed—and without your management or permission—and you’ll appreciate that everything inside you is always exchanging, working in accord with its own economy.

The fault lies not in the dysfunction of the system, but in our misperception of it.

So, if we accept a perennial exchange within our own bodies, which Nature compels we must, someone may still say: “Yes, I can appreciate a self-contained economy, but my usefulness to society—that’s what’s NOT working.’

But is that true?

An Inexhaustible Battery

Suppose you have a battery. You hold this lithium-ion battery in your hand and you tell me: “This battery isn’t working.” I would respond: “What do you mean? How do you know the battery, itself, is faulty? Have you tried recharging it?”

And should the battery be capable of being recharged, and in fact become recharged, would you still claim “This battery isn’t working,” without testing it in an appropriate device? Of course not.

So, if you’re out of work or feel stuck in neutral right now, the instant conclusion shouldn’t be: “I’m dysfunctional,” or “I don’t work.” Before you make those baseless assertions, ask yourself two questions:

1. Are you fully charged (maintaining or increasing your competency)?

2. Are you plugged into a device (field or employment) that can transform your energy into making life more pleasant for the rest of us?

If you’re transitioning back to work or are recovering from a health issue, then you can at least ensure your faculties (mind, emotions, energy) and work readiness are honed to an optimal level. This may entail pivoting into a tangential, or entirely different, field—and that’s just fine.

However, when you become ‘recharged,’ then you need but seek the best avenue of contribution for your expertise. You might not get it right on the first go, but as you experiment (which is fun!) you’ll discover the perfect fit for you: Competence is always in demand and, more often than not, in short supply.

But, at no time, need you feel as if you’re ‘wasting time’ merely because one aspect of you is not diligently laboring to provide goods and services as it once was, and it may be of no little consolation to know that many others are working themselves to an early grave in your absence.

Now let’s get ready to re-launch—the right way!

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That’s a wrap for this post. I hope you’ll appreciate that, no matter our circumstances, each of us exists in a state of constant exchange, we need only become aware of this inherent capacity in order to reorient our personal efforts to harmonize with the larger economy.

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1. https://www.bls.gov/newsroom/

2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3702026/

3. https://www.milbank.org/the-quarterly/

4. I’m not a mental health professional of any type and I endorse seeking the services of a licensed mental health professional should you have any issues; please don’t rely on the internet for these needs. USA National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (NSPL): 988

5. Leana, C., & Feldman, D. (1988). Individual Responses to Job Loss: Perceptions, Reactions, and Coping Behaviors. Journal of Management, 14, 375 - 389. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920638801400302.

6. Onciul, J. (1996). ABC of Work Related Disorders: STRESS AT WORK. BMJ, 313, 745 - 748. https://doi.org/10.1136/BMJ.313.7059.745.

7. Howe, G., Levy, M., & Caplan, R. (2004). Job loss and depressive symptoms in couples: common stressors, stress transmission, or relationship disruption?. Journal of family psychology : JFP : journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association, 18 4, 639-50 . https://doi.org/10.1037/0893-3200.18.4.639.