“Happy New Year” may sound a little hollow this year. We’ve rung it in with renewed warfare, recession, the collapse of the once-trusted financial system and widespread job losses.
There are serious concerns about gas supplies during a particularly cold winter, and worry over long-term economic pressures coming from the steps taken to bolster the economy in the short term. All this and we’re only one week in with few glimmers of improvement for our collective economic situation.
A recent survey suggested that 31 per cent of UK employees are frightened of being made redundant. Many who are self-employed are worried that work will dry up and they will be unable to pay themselves a living wage.
Do you know what, though? Human beings have huge potential to adapt to and overcome adversity. We wouldn’t have got this far if we hadn’t. Collectively, we’ve done it before and we’ll do it again.
Paradoxically to become part of the collective solution, we need to think as individuals, each of us focusing on what we can do and who we can influence. Stephen Covey describes this in his circles of influence and concern, encouraging us to not waste energy and emotion on the things we can do nothing about.
By making progress on our individual lives, we gain more experience, influence and energy for those around us, which means we can begin to influence the bigger picture. Influence begets influence. Sometimes you cannot have any direct influence over a concern, but you influence people who can.
We’re all going to deal with our fears for 2009 in different ways. Having spent part of my career in risk management (including the non-event that was the Millennium Bug), my approach is to identify every risk and work out my contingency plan or mitigation for the loss I may suffer. I think about whether I need to change the nature of my work this year to guarantee income or whether I need to promote my existing business more. I consider what would happen if our savings disappeared over night. Creating lots of options and selecting positive actions helps me sleep at night, however strange that may sound.
My husband’s approach is different. He doesn’t let the worry get to him, he just keeps doing random sensible things each day like shopping around for car insurance, being a bit more frugal and doing a great job for his employer. He ignores the big picture concerns unless they hit him directly.
My closest colleague’s view is different again: “2009 will be what it will be, let’s just make it as good as possible for the business.”
Whatever the approach, the end result is the same: do sensible things every day to improve your odds of having a financially secure 2009 and then get on with enjoying life.
There are some common themes when it comes to handling fears about the future:
- Whenever you’re anxious do three things that improve the odds of you having a successful 2009. These can be large or small scale and they won’t all work perfectly. Some will, and you will have made them happen.
- Do a couple of positive things to improve your odds everyday anyway as a matter of discipline and habit, even if you’re not feeling anxious!
- Allow yourself to feel concerned — it’s a perfectly normal human reaction. Don’t give yourself a hard time for worrying and don’t feel you have to hide your worry from others. Tell people who care about you or who can help you and make sure you also tell them what you’re doing to improve your situation.
- If you are prone to sleepless nights, don’t watch the late night news just before going to bed. Watching an earlier news bulletin gives you chance to think about current affairs without being engulfed by them. Go to bed thinking about the three positive actions you’ve already taken instead.
- Keep a sense of perspective. Anyone who has faced, or is facing, real life or death situations knows that life is about much more than economics — it’s about love, health and happiness.
- Keep a sense of history. Difficult times pass and we adapt to new circumstances. What will you have learned about yourself and how you coped with any adversity you faced? What stories will you tell?
Happy new year.
