How to Rebuild Confidence and Purpose After Job Loss: Lessons From a Mental Performance Coach

This American Thanksgiving, I’m reflecting on what it means to serve as a coach with Grounded Idealist, supporting former USAID employees who’ve lost not just their jobs, but their mandate and sense of purpose.

Why does this work matter so deeply to me as a Canadian coach? Because I know exactly what it feels like to have the rug pulled out from underneath you.

The First Fall

I spent 12 years in Corporate Canada. Without going into the gory details, I was let go. Not because I wanted to leave. Not because I had a plan. I had to navigate the grief, the disorientation, and the metamorphosis that comes when your identity is stripped away along with your job title.

Lucky for me, my next incarnation was even better than the last. I learned something profound: sometimes the universe closes a door because you would never have walked through a better one on your own.

The Second Fall

Then the pandemic hit. Once again, I lost my livelihood and what felt like my purpose. The grief came roaring back, but this time with a different quality. This time, I wasn’t alone in the loss. Millions of people worldwide were navigating the same disorientation, the same questions about meaning and next steps.

Even luckier this time, I found my true purpose as a peak mental performance coach. I now help others navigate feeling stuck, move through chaos, and find what’s waiting on the other side. Because here’s what I’ve learned through my own falls: every time I thought it was the end of the road, it was actually another door opening to something even better.

The Necessary Healing

But here’s the part that nobody tells you about those inspiring transformation stories: in the short term, when a door closes without your choice, there’s a healing process that must happen. You have to move through the grief before the next steps can fall into place. You can’t skip this part, no matter how much you want to.

My motivation and confidence were shaken during both of those transitions. The same is true for the former USAID employees I now support through Grounded Idealist. This past year, I’ve coached two one-on-one clients and am currently coaching a group of five in a program called Root 2 Rise: How to Create Unshakeable Confidence.

What We Work On

We focus on rebuilding motivation, restoring confidence, reducing worry and stress, increasing clarity about next steps, and most importantly, taking care of “me” in the moment.

I’m not your tactical coach on how to write your resume or optimize your LinkedIn profile. I’m your emotional support coach—helping you build up who you are and who you need to be to move forward with more empowerment.

We work on self-reflection and increased self-awareness. We work on putting your own oxygen mask on first. We work on getting to that “just right” space where you can actually see clearly and move forward intentionally.

The Common Thread

Over the past year, I’ve supported people who’ve lost jobs in healthcare, alternative energy, high tech, and USAID. The common thread running through all of these coaching relationships? Finding yourself and your purpose before rushing to the next job.

Why not find work that aligns with who you are, instead of scrambling back onto the hamster wheel?
Why not use this unwanted pause to discover what you actually want instead of what you think you should want?

Why It’s Harder When It’s Not Your Choice

There’s a particular kind of grief that comes with collective loss. There’s also a particular kind of healing that can happen when you don’t have to go through it alone.

What’s on the Other Side

From where I stand now, on the other side of two major career losses, I can see something clearly: the doors that closed without my permission led me to places I never would have found on my own. Places that aligned more deeply with who I truly am, not who I thought I should be.

That’s what I want for every person I coach. Not just another job. Not just survival. But a next chapter that’s even better than the last because it’s built on a foundation of self-awareness, authenticity, and purpose.

Thank you, Grounded Idealist, for creating the space where this kind of transformation can happen—for recognizing that before people can move forward, they need support in moving through.

It has been an honour.