There is no worse feeling than getting laid off from your job. Whether you have been there for six months or thirty years, the sting is still the same. When you are sitting in that chair being told that your services are no longer needed, a feeling of numbness tends to take over. You hear all the details but you only experience it in a weird, “out of body” type of way. While you can remember it all later, in the time being you are simply trying to come to terms with what happened. Of course, the worst part of all of this is having to wake up the next day and not go to work.

The most important moment when you get laid off is the moment that you wake up the next day. Maybe you slept well, maybe you slept terribly. Heck, maybe you drowned your sorrows a bit and had too much to drink. Whatever happened the night before, the moment that you wake up is utterly important. While you may just want to lie in bed and feel bad for yourself, it’s vitally important that you get up and do the things that you have to do to move on with your life. Maybe you need to fill out unemployment forms or spruce up your resume, or maybe you just need to take the kids to school. Regardless of what it is, there is always something to do when you wake up in the morning.

The thing is, you can be miserable if you want, but you should not let it get in the way of moving on with your life. While you can take a break here or there to watch your favorite television show or play a video game on your flat screen, you want to keep busy during the first couple of days. There is always something to do, especially if you are jumping back into the job market. For as many people who get laid off and stay on unemployment for more than a year, there are just as many people who find a job within a month. If you keep focused, you can be one of the lucky ones.

It’s also important to remember that being laid off isn’t the end of the world for most people, it’s the beginning of a new chapter. Most people who have done big things in their life did it because they were faced with a new reality. If you ever had a dream that you never quite had time for, this is the time to do it.