This will be my first and probably last comment about the Wall Street debacle and the failed “bailout.”
Yes, it’s bad news. Yep, a lot of people lost a great deal of money. Yes, things are looking bad. But guess what? It’s going to get better and you are going to be okay.
Chicken Little...The Sky is Falling
Please don’t think that I am not making light of the situation or not being compassionate. I know a lot of people are scared and hurting. Just remember this:
What you focus on expands.
And the truth is that all the worrying in the world is not going to change this turbulent financial situation and make the DOW increase overnight. It never does. So, you can keep watching the news and reading the newspaper and listening to the doom and gloom. You can keep focusing on the problem and you’ll just make yourself feel worse and worse.
Or, you can focus on what you can control. I can recall in one of Stephen Covey’s books, he calls that focusing on your “circle of influence.” When you spend time worrying about things that are outside your circle of influence, it’s counterproductive and a waste of time.
So stop stressing over the money you might have lost, but rather focus on how you can make money and create new opportunities to make more money. Now might be the time for you to change your life and catapult yourself to the next level. (During an economic “crisis”, do you realize that a whole bunch of people are going to become VERY, VERY wealthy? Are you going to be one of them?)
Now, more than ever, you must stick a stake in the ground and focus your attention on what you can do to improve your business, job, career or personal life. When times are good, you can be sloppy in your marketing, in your business practices or job performance. But when times are tough, sloppiness or loafing is unacceptable. I was talking to a business owner recently and he actually said, “Yeah, things are going well for me so I’m not doing as much marketing.” Huh? Could you imagine a dumber statement than that? When things are not going well for you that’s when you should INCREASE your marketing not cut back on it.
It’s time to get back to the fundamentals of not only running our businesses but running our lives.
You have a wonderful opportunity ahead. Think about what you really want to do. Try to ignore your past programming about what you “should” do and open your mind to the possibility of making your life and your business exactly like you want it to be.
There is no better time than right now.
If you own a business, what are you doing to recession proof you business? What are you doing to increase your sales.I would love to hear your comments.
Bianca J.
