(FORTUNE Magazine) – DEAR ANNIE: After 12 years of working 70-hour weeks in a senior management position at a FORTUNE 500 company, I got laid off in May. This came as an enormous shock because although I knew there was a restructuring in the works (in fact I helped plan it), I didn't expect to be one of its casualties. I've been going on lots of job interviews, but I can't seem to get motivated, and I guess interviewers must sense that. I feel so disillusioned that if I were a few years older, I'd retire right now and say to hell with it. Do you have any suggestions for ending this slump? SPINNING MY WHEELS

DEAR SMW: Yes. My friend, after 12 years of 70-hour weeks and then the big surprise kiss-off, you are in dire need of a break. For now, stop going on job interviews. Take a vacation. Play golf, or go rock climbing, or tour with a bluegrass band--or whatever floats your boat. "Lots of laid-off executives' first impulse is to go from high gear to high gear. They rush out and try to get the same kind of job they just lost," says Dave Corbett, founder and CEO of Boston's New Directions (www.newdirections.com), which specializes in helping senior ($200,000-a-year-plus) executives redesign their careers after a firing or other setback. "What you need is to get into neutral for a while. For high-achieving people, there is a lot of guilt around the idea of taking time off. But it's okay--in fact, it's necessary. Stop and think about how you really want to spend the next 20 or 30 years. It may be the first time ever that you have had a chance to do so. Take advantage of it."

The lack of motivation that you are feeling now is perfectly normal. But, Corbett says, "that loss of confidence and purpose has got to be addressed before you can move ahead." How? While you are taking your nice relaxing breather from the job hunt, Corbett suggests you do three things. First, build a support system of people who care about you: "Involve your family. Sit down with your spouse and find out what his or her aspirations are--what kind of life you might be able to redesign together. Spend time with friends you may not have seen for a while." The idea here is to gain a sense of yourself as a whole human being, not just--or even primarily--an out-of-work manager. Toward the same end, review all the accomplishments of your life: "Go all the way back to high school. What achievements have given you the most pleasure? Include everything in this inventory, even a winning touchdown pass you threw in college or a poetry prize you won in the eighth grade. Who are you? What do you excel at? Where are your strengths? What have you loved doing?" Adds Corbett: "We counsel a lot of former pro athletes, and they're good at this process because they know their stats. What are yours?"

From there, the goal is to get back into the working world in a way that reflects your--pardon the consultantese--core competencies. What you end up doing may surprise you. One of Corbett's clients, the former CEO of a huge consulting firm, "thought he wanted to take charge of a big company again right away. But after he did some real introspection, he realized he didn't want that at all." The man now spends about a third of his time consulting to a major New York bank, another third running a mentoring program for inner-city kids, and the rest fly-fishing with his 26-year-old son, whom he'd hardly seen in his years as a corporate hotshot.

Of course, not everyone reshuffles his or her priorities so drastically, but even if you decide you want the same kind of job you had before, at least now you'll know why. And one tip for your next job hunt: "Focus on each interview as if it were the only one. High achievers tend to be two steps ahead of themselves mentally at every turn. But you can't run a marathon in one 26-mile leap. You run it one telephone pole at a time."

DEAR ANNIE: I just graduated from Yale and am about to start my first real job, and I'm curious about something. If you had to pass along just one piece of advice on which to build a career, what would it be? ELIZABETH

DEAR ELIZABETH: I've always liked Albert Einstein's dictum: "If A equals success, then the formula is A = X + Y + Z. X is work. Y is play. And Z is, Keep your mouth shut." Or as my dad used to say, Nobody ever learns anything while they're talking. If you make it a habit to listen more than you speak, you can't go too far wrong.