The Identity Crisis Nobody Warns You About - with Geoff Curtis, author of Embracing Your Own Purgatory
Now What? - Life after redundancyShow Notes
Redundancy has a way of doing something nobody really prepares you for. It doesn't just take the job it also dismantles the version of yourself that was built around it. Your title, the structure, the sense of purpose that came with knowing what you did and being good at it. And then one day, someone asks what you do, and you're not entirely sure how to answer.
In this episode I'm joined by Geoff Curtis — former c-suite communications executive and author of Embracing Your Own Purgatory — to talk about what actually happens to identity during career transition, why high achievers often struggle most when the professional scaffolding comes down, and why the instinct to sprint back to normality as fast as possible might be working against you.
We get into the difference between chosen and imposed transitions, the stories we tell ourselves to maintain the illusion of control, and what it actually looks like to sit with uncertainty rather than outrun it.
If you've ever felt like the job loss was straightforward but the identity loss wasn't, maybe give this a listen.
Embracing Your Own Purgatory by Geoff Curtis — https://amzn.eu/d/0fpfEGUn Connect with Geoff on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/geoffreycurtis/ For community and practical support during redundancy — https://theinvisiblequeue.co.uk Get in touch with the show — https://thenowwhat.co.uk
More from Now What? - Life after redundancy
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