The F Word

Outside it was paradise. The sun was shining. The waves were lapping on the beach shoreline and all the comfort of being on a vacation in the tropics enveloped me. Stepping inside the hotel room to change for dinner, I caught wind of news in the United States. Economic downfall… yes, this was September of 2008. 

It was strange to be on vacation, only to know there was jeopardy back home. Once I returned, the buzz of layoffs was humming. I was busy and I preferred to keep my head down and stay focused. But the negative talk was like a sparked match that once it caught dry lips of another naysayer and skeptic it was blazing.

I found myself getting more nervous as I heard the whisperings around the studio. Ever the optimist though, I told myself I was in a good place because I was busy on project work. In January of 2009, I was included in the 30+ employee layoff. From my friends and colleagues who survived that one, they said I was fortunate. The pins and needles in the following months of uncertainty was difficult as many more lay-offs would follow that year.

There is a split second moment when our brains are about to make a choice. At the point the decision pathway is chosen it is either belief that the negative will happen (fear) or belief that the positive will happen (faith).

The way you go is largely determined by what you have consumed in watching, reading, or listening to. The context and substance of what your mind is familiar with heads in that direction.

With nothing but time on my hands, I began to consume news and talk shows and articles of the recession. Fear was present and it led me. I wasn’t rooted well. I began to feel like I was standing back on that shoreline and instead of a solid rock, it was sinking sand to be washed out at sea.

Is it plausible that drama sells more than peace?

The richest man who has ever lived never knew what a recession is. He said this: 

“What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.”

Here we are in a repeat of economic downturn. But you have a choice. Faith or fear. You have a choice of what you consume through your eyes and ears. Draw in wisdom, but leave behind the foolishness of those who only seek to destroy. 

Hard times do not equate to a lack of opportunity. Within four months of being laid off in 2009, I was with a new company who needed to hire a Project Architect quietly due to all of the lay-offs. I was referred personally by a former client. The power of relationships is an article for another day, but suffice to say there was a happy ending to that story.

Be of good countenance. You are not falling apart. Neither is the world. Change is constant and consistent. Learn to adapt and ride the wave of it.