Everyone is deeply focused on the current economic crisis and the upcoming election. This article is an update to my discussion of this topic in early 2009.
The news headlines are still ominous:
"The Worse Economic Crisis Since the Great Depression." "The Most Important Election in Decades."
How did our relatives live through the great depression? How did the Civil Rights Movement change the lives of that uncertain time in our history? Now, we are faced with another critical election about how we should proceed into an uncertain future. A critical question that is emerging is the question: "Are you better off today?"
The answer to the question can be measured in absolute and relative terms. If you have more money in the bank, a better job, a growing business -- these material measurements can give you an arithmetic answer to the question. But our lives are more complicated than these simple measurements.
How should ordinary people answer this question? Are all the factors in our lives improving or declining? And what can we do about it? I have an answer to this question that will help everyone -- regardless of your situation.
There is a pundit behind every tree with advice and data about what to do next about -- your business, your mortgage, your investments, your job, your house, your retirement, your education -- ad nauseam. One political party is telling us that things are worse, and the other is telling us things are better as we emerge from the worse recession since the Great Depression.
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 challenges we face. The one word that finds its way into each debate, every conversation, every forecast, each jobs report -- that word is confidence. The decisions we make in the upcoming election depend upon whether we have confidence in the choices we make to improve our situation.
Each of us needs to focus on a set of core values, friends, trusted advisors, and leaders in whom we have confidence to help us thrive and prosper.
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. If you don't have confidence in your current political leaders, vote for someone else. Your very future depends on the decisions that make 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 and improve the overall economy. 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 global 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.
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."
I am confident that we are on a course that will help us emerge from this economic crisis in a stronger position. I believe we are better off today as a result of the cumulative actions taken by our President and his leadership team over the past three and half years.
What do you think?
Roger Madison,
Founder and CEO
iZania, LLC
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