How To Ensure The Economy Doesn’t Steal Your Dream
Welcome to my blog.
What drives me is to empower people to discover their dream. Everyone of us have a dream, a purpose, a goal, a meaning that we are created to fulfill. However, numerous obstacles, events, and circumstances often prevent us from reaching that point in our lives. In this blog I will process some of the more recent circumstances around us that can potentially prevent you from reaching your dream. I see this as a conversation, so I will throw in ideas and I absolutely want you to chime in, give your opinion, comments, or ideas. We can learn from one another’s experience – a sort of collective wisdom that all can benefit from.
Regarding the present economy I read an article in the San Francisco Chronicle (June 1, 2009) with the heading, “Economy in Turmoil – High stress of recession leading some to depression”. Erin Allday writes that the nationwide recession is wreaking havoc on the country’s mental health. Experts are saying that that nearly everyone feels more stressed these days – people are worried about losing their jobs, homes, and livelihood. Others watched their retirement go up in smoke. Dr. David Spiegel, a professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine are quoted in this article as saying, “We’ve seen people in the ER, suicidal or depressed, because they’ve lost their jobs. They have had a whole change in their sense of their self-worth and they don’t see a way out.” He continues to say, “Much more common are people who are realizing, ‘The life I had planned out carefully is different now’…People are feeling helpless.”
What does this mean to you and me pursuing our dream?
There is a possibility that you might begin to fear, become uncertain and anxious about reaching your dream. Fear opens the door for real trouble…especially the effect it has on what you say.
Fear let you say: “I will never reach my goal,” or “It’s over,” and “It’s not worth it.” Once you begin to make these negative declarations over your life, it indeed becomes your reality.
Your behavior will begin to follow the directions of your thoughts and words. Now, I’m not discounting the effects and restraints of the negative economy on your plans for the future, but once you go into fear and negativity you are going to make the circumstances exponentially worse if you don’t watch what you say.
What looked bleak will begin to look hopeless; what appeared to be a challenge now becomes an insurmountable obstacle; what has been difficult becomes impossible. Indeed, concerning the helplessness that people are increasingly experience according to Dr. David Spiegel, you can think and talk yourself right into a mega-helplessness. And off course, helplessness is one of the main breeding grounds for depression.
So what are you to do?
One: stay the course – don’t give up;
Two: Watch what you say – don’t begin to say a bunch of fearful things;
Three: Adjust your plans if need be – being strategic does not mean you give up.
Four: Remember where you are going with your life and the dream you are pursuing – do not lose your sense of direction. This is the time to remind yourself again what you plan to do with your life, remind yourself of your dreams and hopes and make a renewed resolve to get there.
Remember – poor economic times have been known to also give rise to new inventions and great entrepreneurial feats. Remember, some of the greatest entrepreneurial ventures started during the Great Depression in the 1930s in America, just read the story of Hewlett Packard on my website.
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