The word 'redundant' has to be one of the English language's most negative words. There is no happy context for it that I can find, it always simply boils down to 'not needed'. No wonder we fear it. No one wants to think of themselves as 'superfluous to requirement'. I fought with myself over including it in the title of my blog, but given that's the subject, how else would you know what I was blogging about? I've done my best to give it a positive spin, but am still not all that happy with it. It's supposed to suggest a choice, an opportunity, but could, I realise, suggest some sort of professional suicide attempt.
But here's the good news. You are not redundant. I am not redundant. There is no such thing as a redundant person. The most useful thing I did last week was attend a workshop at my local library on uncovering the hidden job market (I may blog about that later), and as we introduced ourselves, the man next to me said 'I was made redundant' - then corrected himself to 'my post was made redundant, not me'. It seems to me to be very important that we each take time to word that right, whether to others, or to ourselves. It will affect our feelings of success or failure, and our motivation to pick ourselves up and try something new.
So here's my action for this blog, which I would encourage you to do too: think about what makes you unique? There is only one you, and no-one else can be you as well as you can. Yes it's a cliche but please don't shrug it off - there is more to each person breathing on this planet that what they do for a living, and in this culture, which is so obsessed with work, we need to remind ourselves of that from time to time.
And the last word goes to Audrey Hepburn:
“People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone.”
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