Everyone is deeply focused on the current economic crisis. The news headlines are ominous: "The Worse Economic Crisis Since the Great Depression." How did our relatives live through the great depression? Since that time, we have gone through multiple recessions and recoveries. Each subsequent recession has been shorter, and every recovery has been longer.
How should ordinary people respond to this news? Are you headed for recovery or disaster? I have an answer to this crisis that will help everyone -- regardless of your situation. Read on.
There is a pundit behind every tree with advice about what to do next about -- your mortgage, your investments, your job, your house, your retirement, your education -- ad nauseum. With so much advice, how do you decide what to do? There is a thread running through all of this that can help each of us steer our way through the disaster. The one word that finds its way into each debate, every conversation, every forecast, each jobs report. That word is confidence. The outcome of each encounter hinges upon whether we have confidence in the answer, or not.
To weather this storm requires a set of actions that center around this one word. Each of us needs to find a set of core values, friends, and trusted advisors in whom we have confidence that will help us to survive. If you don't have confidence in your current job, look for another before you are unemployed. If you aren't confident in your skills, enroll in a course of training to acquire new ones. If you have no confidence in the community where you live, move. Your very futue depends on the investments you make in making you more confident of a prosperous future.
First, for those of us at the bottom of the economy, we must have confidence in our leaders -- primarily, our President -- to make the adjustments necessary to stabilize the overall economy of the world. That is because individual actions can only help us to survive. It is the actions of our leaders that will guide us out of this crisis to a more prosperous future. We elected Barack Obama. We must have confidence in his leadership to change the course from disaster to prosperity.
Second, we must have confidence in our skills and ability to adapt through learning new skills, because the future will not look anything like the past. The good old days are gone forever. There will be better days ahead, but they won't be like the past. We must learn new skills to compete in the gloal society of the 21st century.
Third, we must have confidence in our closest family, friends, and associates. In difficult times, there is no other option than to depend on others. Some of us will be helpers. Others will need more help. Each of us should help someone else if we can, and seek help from others when we are in need. We al must help where we can.
Finally, confidence is rooted in where we place our faith. The definition of faith is "being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see."
Our personal economic stimulus plan will reflect our faith in the future that we do not see. I believe that we will emerge from this in a stronger position.
What do you think?
Roger Madison
www.izania.com
Posted By: Roger E Madison Jr
Friday, February 13th 2009 at 6:00PM
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