Having a bad year? How to re-birth for 2010

I don’t know many people that wouldn’t look at 2009 as a tough year. For many people it has been one of the worst in the last 5 or so years. Having a bad year can make us feel agitated, de-motivated and maybe a little depressed – we may want to get away, maybe new job or new even new company because that will make it feel better (we think!)

I remember my first bad year in sales, I wasn’t alone so it was market based but I felt like the whole world was caving in – I wanted to run away from the situations and feelings that I was facing. My confidence had dropped and I really questioned myself as to whether I was capable of “doing this“ any more.

I can’t recall where my epiphany came from but I came to realise a few things:

1. I wasn’t alone
2. Who am I to think that “ every year will be a great year “ – it’s impossible, business moves in cycles – one in four should be bad
3. My approach I was following in doing my job was still effective and it was the market that sucked
4. I really like my company and my job
5. There was a path out of the wilderness

To help me survive I made sure I had some peers that I could “dump on” so I could get things off my chest. This is great because you don’t have to carry the burden around. I also started to ask for more feedback from people, this helped me to know I was well regarded and doing a good job. Finally I created a plan to recover my sales – it was mission impossible but I literally had a miracle happen on the 16th December that year that delivered $5m in sales and took me to 103% – this miracle came from work I had done in February that year and hadn’t paid off until now.

So my advice to you if you are in the wilderness is as follows:

• Realise you are not alone
• Check in and see if your feedback is still the same – I bet it is.
• Realise everyone is having a bad year
• Think about your job and company – do you still fundamentally like your company and your job – if you don’t like your job than get a new one.
• Create a plan to see out 2009 – pray for a miracle
• Create a plan for 2010 – take a day off and put it together

What are the lessons here? Changing career, job or company for the wrong reason can have major ramifications on your future. Realise it is the environment and not you that is weighing you down. Do something about it!

Have you had an awful 2009? How do you feel? What are you going to do? Write to me and let me know and please rate this article! Thanks