Move Your Future Towards Your Definite Chief Aim

What do you do when you're in what you perceive to be a bad situation? Well, of course there are a number of different strategies you can use. Number one, reframe it; make it a challenge, make it an opportunity, make it something that in fact grows you and betters you and moves you further in your quest for your definite chief aim, or your contribution to society and humanity.

Such as this, for instance. You've known marketers who've done this, and you know that I've done it before. And if you don't know me that well, you might just take hold of this and believe that I would.

If something "bad" happens to me (and I use that term very loosely when it applies to me), when I face a setback or something that appears to be a setback, immediately I go to work converting it into a benefit.

And really, it will be a benefit, because I learned something. But another way it might be a benefit for me is that I might just talk about it in an article or a broadcast. I'm going to convert into some teaching instance what I learned at that time. All it really is is the old, old story of taking lemons and making lemonade.

When you have lemons, you make lemonade.

So, it's easy just to reframe what you've got—but also, here's another thing. Do a reality check. In this current economic crisis, this depression that is upon us, I hear people talking—and those people are worried. But you know what? Most of them still have their income.

I'm not saying they haven't done some belt tightening, but there's income today, so what are they worried about? Well, they're worried about all these projections for tomorrow.

Now, if you've lost your job, of course, I'm not trying to make light of it. But you know, when they count the million people who have lost their jobs, that's hundreds of millions who are still employed.

I'm no dummy, and you're not either. When you go out to the market to get something you need—depending on your budget, where that might be may differ—the market is full, it's bustling, people are employed, people are buying stuff. Same thing at Wal-Mart, same thing when you go out on the street.

I hear people saying that they're taking half the price that they used to get to haul a load right now, but the streets and the roads of America are full and still congested.

So, do a reality check. How bad is it really? Are you really bad off? Now, if, for instance, you were at a point where you were considering that you needed to go bankrupt, well, of course, that might be a crisis in your life. I'm not saying it wouldn't be, although I know a lot of people who've said that was an eye-opening experience.

But for most of us, most of the time, things are not that critical. We're worrying about what might be… We're worrying about the consequences of a chain of dominos which has not played out yet, and which we've got a part to co-create in. We've got our own opportunities to do stuff—for instance, if you see it coming on your job, why hang around?

Why don't you get active and do something? Be proactive rather than reactive.

So, when you're wondering how to make it—re-frame, do a reality check, and then of course go back into action, recreating.

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