Thursday, January 29, 2009

Thriving in Any Economic Climate

After an eight-day vacation on the beach in Mexico, where I was blissfully unaware of the economic movements of our world, I came face to face with the Situation Room on CNN while working out at the local gym. Within moments, my freeflowing optimism and happy outlook began to be replaced by a feeling of foreboding; that is, until I noticed the knot in my gut and recognized that watching all those dire predictions that I have no personal control over wasn't doing anything good for me. I turned my attention elsewhere, and began to plan my day instead.

We are each responsible for maintaining our optimism no matter how loud the cries of desperation on our news stations, or how dire the headlines we glimpse. If we focus on those things we have the power to influence personally, like our own bodies, feeding our minds with uplifting material, creating the value we want to contribute in our professional lives and nurturing the relationships that are meaningful to us...well, there simply isn't time left over for hand wringing, and that's a good thing. We must remember that those news stories are designed to get attention and sell products. They are an extremely disproportionate representation of the good and not so great events that happen in a given day. 

In fact, if equal time were given to the good things that are happening around our planet, that would take up about 23 hours and 50 minutes of a typical news day (best guess). Really. If unemployment is at 6%, and they were giving a balanced view, they'd have to say that 94% of those who want to be employed are working today. That sounds different, doesn't it? Same information, different spin.

I saw recently where some of the most innovative and successful products of our time were launched in periods of economic recession (Entrepreneur, February 2009). Some of them were Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup in 1934, GE fluorescent light bulb in 1938, McDonald's Hamburgers in 1955, and Diet Coke in 1982. You can bet the creators of these products were too busy acting upon their vision to spend any time fretting over the recession. In every economic climate, there are those who thrive and those who panic. We have a choice about how we will respond to what's happening. We can give our undivided attention to the conversation, person or task at hand, or we can give over to worry and fear. I'm finding it much more exciting and satisfying to focus on those things I have the power to change. I hope you are, too.