Taking The First Step
Vikki Espinosa, CPC
🎤 Speaker & Workshop Designer | Helping People Take Control of Their Careers at Every Stage
If you missed it, start with the first post in the series. Why Resilience Matters In Your Career.
Acknowledge Your Emotions — The First Step to Career Resilience
Career setbacks can be deeply emotional. Whether it’s a job loss, rejection, or an unsuccessful transition, these moments often bring up frustration, self-doubt, and even grief. The key to resilience isn’t pushing past these emotions—it’s acknowledging and processing them so you can move forward with clarity.
Why this matters
Many professionals try to “power through” challenges without addressing how they feel. But suppressing emotions can lead to burnout, reduced confidence, and poor decision-making. Resilient people give themselves space to feel and process disappointment—without staying stuck in it.
(If you missed it, see: “Why Resilience Matters in Your Career” for an overview of why this skill is critical during transitions.)
The Career Transition Grief Cycle
Career setbacks can mirror the emotions of grief. You may find yourself moving through phases like:
Recognizing where you are in this cycle can help you process with intention instead of avoidance.
How to acknowledge and work through your emotions
From emotion to action
Acknowledging emotions doesn’t mean staying stuck. Once you’ve named and processed what you’re feeling, ask: What’s within my control? From there, you can begin taking small, intentional steps to rebuild your confidence and momentum.
💬 How do you process emotions when your career hits a rough patch? Share your thoughts in the comments—someone else may need your insight.
For the next article in the series, read The Power of Reframing Failure.
This: "What’s within my control?" was absolutely game changing for me. I don't recall who introduced the three spheres to me, but it looks like it was popularized by Steven Covey in 7 Habits, and my summary is: * Sphere of control: these are the things I can directly change (for better or worse); this is often where I should be spending most of my resources (time, energy, emotion, etc.) * Sphere of influence: these are the things I cannot directly change, but I can influence the people who can directly change them. Competence with soft skills and relationship building make this sphere more manageable, although still not controllable * Sphere of concern: these are the things that I cannot change, either directly or indirectly; while I may be impacted by them, there's little value in burning energy or emotion on these things, as even if I focus everything I have on them, they're still outside even my influence. (Colloquially, "Sphere of can't do a dang thing about it.") So I try to minimize how much I allow things here to affect my energy and emotions. Not disconnecting from reality, just acknowledging where I do and do not have ability to change things.
Retired from Intel Corporation
4w💯%! I especially think this is KEY: “Choose those who will listen and support you—not those who feed your fears.”