Recession Proof Your Life Part 5

This is the 5th and final installment of my series on Recession Proofing Your Life.  In this blog, I talk about where you really want to be going in the long(er) run and that is owning your own business, the statistically best chance for you to become a millionaire.

Part 5 – The Real Opportunity

In my wealth coaching practice (a hybrid of business and life coaching), I have talked to any number of people – peers and clients – who have said “losing my job was one of the best things that ever happened to me.” ‘Why is that?’ you might ask. Because it forces us to re-evaluate our job situation and, hopefully, the rest of our lives. We all too often get weighed down by “what is.” What we’re used to, the status quo, not rocking the boat, etc. Often, we attach far too much importance to a J.O.B. and rely on them not only for our self esteem, but as the focal point around which our lives are defined.  Some people are lucky and really love their jobs. The last I checked, the percentages who claimed this mythical status was in the low 20% of those employed for someone else (the number goes up significantly for the self-employed). In general, being an employee turns out to be better than nothing (quite often a true statement) and the path of least resistance.   In the current economic climate, the best job in the world could indeed be the one you have (last Friday’s unemployment numbers were the worst in years) so let me say this again: THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH HAVING A JOB.  However, in my experience, the employee route is typically - there are always exceptions - antithetical to growth and keeps us from our full potential as human beings.

Consider your current or impending lack of employment as your chance to learn to thrive. Get out of the rut that was your routine and take a chance on an exponential step forward in finding out what you really value in your life, what you’re really good at doing, and what you are passionate about. This is the core of truly being wealthy. It’s not just about money, it’s about finding a balance between all different dimensions of your well being (well being is the actual definition of the word wealth by the way … no where is wealth specifically confined to the financial domain).

Look at this as an opportunity…in EVERY turn of adversity, of chaos, in the markets, in your life, there is opportunity.  There are really two major areas of life that 99% of people are concerned with in any given day:

1. Personal fulfillment - what are the factors you use to define your overall quality of life and wellbeing and how you prioritize and implement those various dimensions to give your life meaning and a sense of purpose.
2. Generating income – this is a unique and important subset of the first item. How important this is to you – and what you do about it - is a part of the prioritization you do in the item 1

What I teach in my workshops and help others work towards in my wealth coaching practice is a combination of those 2 objectives.  I’m going to summarize the overall process to give you a foundation for what it takes to have a more holistic sense of wealth and abundance in your life.  This is hardly the whole story but certainly gives you an idea of what I have found to work over the years in helping me to have both a thoroughly satisfying life and become a self-made multimillionaire.

• Quality of life is embodied via your overall sense of well being
• Another word for wellbeing is wealth
• The different dimensions of wealth define your life
• This takes into account physical, emotional, relational, spiritual, intellectual, financial and all dimensions of wellbeing; Wealth is not just about money
• How do you identify and prioritize these areas? Understand and honor your system of values and what is important to you in your life. This allows you to establish goals for your life based on the categories of wealth and their priority to you now and in the future
• This invariably requires money, so how do we generate income based on all of this great self-knowledge?
• Everything you are, your strengths, passions, attitude and other characteristics form your Wealth Potential, a unique resource you (and only you) possess to create value.
• The principles of entrepreneurship provide the connection between your Wealth Potential and markets and money
• Your Wealth Potential drives your success in business (job, your own company, investments) and quality of life.
• Creating wealth in all dimensions of your life – including money – is now a holistic synergy
• You love what you do and do what you are good at doing
• You get paid for doing what you would otherwise do for free.
• In the end, you will not only survive but thrive and in the process, uncover joy and a sense of purpose in your life

My book, The Wealth Manifesto: Transforming Your Life from Survive to Thrive provides a systematic approach to creating wealth in all aspects of your life.  This includes the personal fulfillment and meaning I was just discussing but also will help you to channel that inherent wealth potential we all possess into the generation of income.

Thanks for reading.  I hope you made it through all 5 parts of this series on recession proofing your life.  As an active investor (real estate and stocks mostly), I unfortunately can’t give you any good news about the economy in the near term.  Even in the best possible scenario, the stock market won’t turn around until the middle of 2009 (except for a brief bear market rally that we may be coming into right now) and this is unlikely.  A good part of that has to do with the real estate market that will not start to recover until late 2010…maybe later.

But enough of “market-talk” …. Enjoy who you are and what you have right now - gratitude for the present and the gift of life itself is one of the keys to abundance.

Talk soon!