Monday Morning

Motivation    9/26/2011

THE POSITIVE PLACE. SALES MOTIVATION AND PERSONAL GROWTH

Depression vs. Reality

There are two several different types of depressions. There’s a depression in the earth, for example, usually the result of space aliens who lie in wait for you to come near their hole, when they reach up and grab you and suck out your brains....lemme see, where was I? What was the name of that movie, anyway?

There’s the depression in an economic system, and the depression in one’s emotional makeup.

The first type of depression will be left out of this conversation today -- but as to the other two, they have more in common than you might think at first blush. Each is a departure from the norm -- in one case, normal economic activity, whatever you define that is; and in the second case, a departure from normal emotional activity.

Both of them are an overall look at a situation -- and for whatever reason, sometimes it seems that dwelling on either one of them -- examining them too closely -- makes them worse.

I believe in the ability of people to get themselves out of both types of depressions. I think that either through medication or hard work, or a combination of the two, people can get themselves back into a positive state of mind. As it was famously said -- “The best way out is always through.” Working through the emotional depression -- taking up new activities, developing new physical habits, adopting new mental states -- can often lead us out of a depressive state. I know that because it’s something I’ve dealt with in myself earlier in my life.

In economic depressions or recessions, sometimes the concentration on the troubles at hand can force a country or a world into a worse state than if it was left alone to work out its troubles. Our constant 24-hour news cycle in cable news or Internet news has meant that people who can’t tell a bond from a hole in the ground know are losing sleep wondering if the decline of the market and the rise in gold futures means that they might not have a place to sleep next week. They stop buying, sometimes stop working, often stop paying their bills -- and as a result, the recession deepens, economic activity slows, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I’m reminded of the stock market crash of 1987. It crashed one day for some reason -- probably because it was the fall -- but over the next few days, it rose to where it was before -- and then continued to rise for a number of years. What was the difference between then and now? Not a lot -- except for the people in charge, who bolstered confidence, talked about the resilience of the country, and turned it all around.

A lot of things have changed since then and now. Some people now encourage people to ditch their mortgages -- even when they can pay them. Others tell people to declare bankruptcy -- even though they can pay their bills with a little bit of work. Some people tell people to back off of their commitments to family, work, and the country.

And then there are the professional Chicken Littles, who run around the world, screaming that the sky is falling, the sky is falling (at least satellites may fall -- perhaps they’ve got something). The news cycle is filled with professional pundits who get ratings by crying wolf, or by setting things in their worst possible light.

I believe that the world has more resilience than this, and that we can work our way out of these problems, no matter what part of the world you hail from, or no matter what kind of political system you may have.

I believe that people are inherently good, and that encouraging people to do good works is the best way to deal with life.

I believe that the challenges that we all face are ones that should concern us -- but that they aren’t as impossible as some doom-sayers would have you believe.

I don’t know what the future holds for the world, but I believe we will get out of this recession if we work our way through it -- remember, as in personal depressions, the best way out is always through.

And if I were to give one piece of advice to President Obama, it would be this: Speak positively about the American people, about the people of the world, and about people in general. Every time he talks, the stock market tanks, and it’s not doing my 401K any good at all. I either need to start trading on the lows, or start shorting the market based on his speaking schedule.

Copyright, 2011, by Daryl R. Gibson. 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.