6 Ways to Thrive during Recession

I cannot stress this hard enough. Remember Douglas Adams’ immortal words, and don’t panic. Granted, it is difficult not to panic during hard times, but be assured that it is harder to clean up the pile of shards you can generate by panicking even a little. So, please, don’t.

Get professional help. Now I don’t want this article to sound too self-congratulatory, and although I do offer a special recession coaching programme there are loads of coaches and, yes, even therapists around that can help to stop panicking and start thinking. Google them. Ask colleagues for recommendations. Call a couple of coaches on the phone, and make an appointment only if your gut feeling is 100% “yes.”

The recession is not a single entity, it is a process. The recession is not a “he,” “she” or “it.” As soon as a process gets anthropomorphized, it gets more frightening. As an example, imagine your neighbors Joe and Jack sitting in the pub. Joe says “Oh boy, I couldn’t sleep last night!”, and Jack replies, in horror, “I know this sleeplessness! It always comes when the moon is full!” Sleeplessness, or the recession, is not a beast, nor is it anything tangible you can put in a wheelbarrow. It is an abstract umbrella term for a multitude of complex processes, and it will not be easier to handle if you call it “the recession.”

It’s easy to feel like a victim if you have been sacked from your company (who might have lost loads of money due to some guys at the bank who in turn …), and it’s even easier to feel like a victim if you see “the recession” as an entity that can do something to or with you. Especially considering no. 3 in my small list, you cannot feel a victim if there isn’t anything tangible that can hurt you. Think ’bout that, and you’ll automaticall feel like a victor.

No one, it seems, has any sympathy with those high-level bankers who helped cause the current recession and burned away state loans in the crash’s aftermath. They cannot be content with less, can they? Of course not, you might say. But can you? Can you miss out on those overpriced coffee in paper cups? Or on your second, or even third, car? (I have none, never had, probably never need to.) If you have lost money, or your job, or both, and still run around with your credit cards buying overpriced lattes or anything you don’t really need, then stop, now. If you don’t, you will be no better than those bankers who spent money they did not own.

This recession will pass. No one knows when, but it will pass. There’s nothing much you can do to influence the multitude of processes that make up what is called “the recession.” One thing, however, you can: Understand that you are part of this process and find out how to turn your life around. I could pitch our recession coaching programme here again, but I will refrain from mentioning it for a second time: You are the master of your life. Don’t get involved in others’ lives (such as “the bankers who f’ed it all up”), don’t get victimized by some“thing” that doesn’t exist, and remember that even if it won’t be over during your lifetime, there’s no need to worry because there are always ways to thrive, regardless of circumstances.

I’d say “Amen” here, but that would get me into trouble with the FSM, I guess. So, to all readers, have fun, especially during “the recession.” I know you can!