Now that we have discussed downsizing and belt-tightening and overhead reduction, ad naseum, we can get to the real center of financial (and every other kind of) security -- the present moment and its environs. Living in the near now, even while temporarily underutilized, it is possible to feel entirely safe and secure. Most of us have enough resources to get to the end of the day, or even the week, and possibly the month, with excess left over. It's when we start to look at the six month, or three year, plan that we manage to cause ourselves anxiety.
As to those three year plans, do the numbers 70, 130 or 50 mean anything to you? Those are the approximate prices of Lehman Brothers Holdings, Bear Stearns & Co. and Merrill Lynch respectively approximately three years ago today. Nice, sound, safe, secure companies one and all back in 2006. Three years later? Devastated, all of them.
We have to reel our focus in and concentrate on the present moment. Build a better today and tomorrow will take care of itself. Focus on what makes you feel happy, or safe, or excited, or useful, or any other good feeling that you seek today and you will be building a tomorrow that will be full of the same. Similarly, press your nose to the grindstone, tough it out, show some guts, no pain no gain today and you will be building a tomorrow that is full of the same. Your choice.
Now I know that a lot of the American (and derivatively the world) economy is built upon a more, bigger, newer, faster premise, but I'm going to suggest that the time has come for national down-sizing. Let's get more out of less ... or if we can't do that, let's settle for less out of less. Less financial stress and strain means more quality of life -- more time in the garden, or on the bike path, or taking a walk, meeting your neighbors, riding the bus, becoming a part of a community and not just someone who quickly races from the car to the house before anyone can talk at us.
The simple life is likely the better life so why not choose it? Or for some of us, why not allow it to choose us?
As to those three year plans, do the numbers 70, 130 or 50 mean anything to you? Those are the approximate prices of Lehman Brothers Holdings, Bear Stearns & Co. and Merrill Lynch respectively approximately three years ago today. Nice, sound, safe, secure companies one and all back in 2006. Three years later? Devastated, all of them.
We have to reel our focus in and concentrate on the present moment. Build a better today and tomorrow will take care of itself. Focus on what makes you feel happy, or safe, or excited, or useful, or any other good feeling that you seek today and you will be building a tomorrow that will be full of the same. Similarly, press your nose to the grindstone, tough it out, show some guts, no pain no gain today and you will be building a tomorrow that is full of the same. Your choice.
Now I know that a lot of the American (and derivatively the world) economy is built upon a more, bigger, newer, faster premise, but I'm going to suggest that the time has come for national down-sizing. Let's get more out of less ... or if we can't do that, let's settle for less out of less. Less financial stress and strain means more quality of life -- more time in the garden, or on the bike path, or taking a walk, meeting your neighbors, riding the bus, becoming a part of a community and not just someone who quickly races from the car to the house before anyone can talk at us.
The simple life is likely the better life so why not choose it? Or for some of us, why not allow it to choose us?
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