Staying positive in hard times

The other day, the Federal Reserve chairman uttered the word many people have been uttering. “Recession,” he said.

Oddly enough, not many people seemed to get too upset about it – they were already expecting doom and gloom.

It remains to be seen whether this recession – if indeed the recession exists in more than just a few parts of the economy – will be a quick dip, or a long swoon – but it appears for many of us, hard times are here – for now at least.

Ronald Reagan famously quipped that "if you lose your job, it’s a recession – but if I lose my job, it’s a depression."

Well, whatever it is, how ever long it stays, and however it plays out, there’s one thing that will help.

Keep your mind where it belongs – on the positive side of life.

Look here – if you allow yourself to be tempted away to the “gloom and doom” side of life, what possible good is it going to do you? If you stay on the positive side of the equation, you’ll feel better, you’ll do better, and if worse comes to worst, you’ll look better in front of a prospective employer.

If you were dealing with magnets, you’d have to say that “positive” and “negative” were evenly matched. They are equal and opposing forces.

However, in our lives, at least, positive always trumps negative. Think about it, if you will – the negative people don’t ever accomplish anything great – how can the negative side be better than positive?

As one notable said, “They don’t build statues of pessimists.” (Well, there’s Lenin – but we won’t count him.)

A former friend of mine is in a job that involves criticizing things – and that’s what he does, every day. He criticizes stuff, people, things, events.

But what good has he done?

I remember him as a college student – I would have thought he was going to become President of the United States someday . He was positive, literate, well-read; now his negative approach to his job impacts everyone else in a negative manner. He’s gotten money and accolades for his job – but when you boil it down, what he does is make his money by criticizing others. What kind of life is that?

Anyway, I digress.

How can you stay positive?

1. Concentrate on your goal; you may need to amend your expectations a bit, or lengthen your timeline somewhat, but concentrating on your prospective destination makes it easier to “keep your eye on the ball.”

2. Forgive anyone where you’ve been slighted.

3. Make short-term deadlines; even as short as a day. Keep your impetus on achieving those deadlines.

4. Count your blessings. It doesn’t matter what the economy is doing, or what the price of gasoline (petrol) is. What matters is the same old stuff: family, friends, self – and counting your blessings allows you to take a look at all the positive things you have going for you.

5. Accumulate enough money and supplies to help in time of emergency, just in case something bad happens. It’s surprising how this can make you feel – when you know you’re not going to starve any time soon, then your mood seems to improve – plus it’s one less thing to worry about.

6. Banish worry! Concentrate on the areas you can do something about – not the areas where your efforts will be in vain. In other words, you’ll accomplish more by fixing the burned-out light in the hallway than you will do by worrying about being struck by lightning. If you must worry, worry about areas where you can actually do something to alleviate the worry.

7. Improve your skill sets – go back to school or learn through distance-learning (read as correspondence course to those of us who are a bit older).

8. If you find rooting around in the mud of despair, then get up and get back to work. Sure, you can always find some way to be negative – but why bother – it doesn’t do you any good, and it just makes you feel worse.

9. Stay away from negative people.

I’m serious – if people can’t be positive, then you should be positive that you don’t need to be around them.

10. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. If you’ve got trouble, remember the quote from the sage: “This, too shall pass."

We’ll get through whatever downturn may turn up. Life has a way of rewarding people for their positive attitude – keep yours up, and wait for your reward.

Copyright, 2008, by Daryl R. Gibson and WeekdayWisdom.com. All rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted for the non-commercial redistribution of this document as long as it remains intact with this copyright and all other lines. This license does not extend to the use of this material in a compilation, whether for profit or non-profit use. Join us at http://www.WeekdayWisdom.com.

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