Doom and Gloom, or Your Time to Shine?

As a very wise man said to me once (last night), “Crises like these aren’t accidents. Nor are successes. They’re created.”

Businesses are closing doors. Belts are tightening. People are worried.

“Gee, thanks for the happy new year wishes, Charlie. Way to start that one off.”

Okay, wait. It gets better!

Maybe times are tough. And maybe they really are way outside our control, as some might suggest. It’s quite possible that we are all completely and utterly screwed.

But the problem with that mentality, aside from possibly being a big fat lie, is that it isn’t going to do a single thing for you. True or not.

The two most ineffective things you can do in life, and especially true right now:

• Do the same thing old you’ve been doing all along, without change;
• Constrict and contract

“What I’ve been doing is working just fine, thanks.”

Look, if you’re doing the same old thing you always do, things are either gonna abruptly break or slowly die. Businesses and lives run best when they’re expanding, not holding on to the status quo.

When your life and business are moving up and blossoming and booming, it’s much harder for things to come crashing down.

On the other hand, if our businesses and lives have been flatlining and just hanging on, it doesn’t take much to tip the balance against us.

If what you’ve been doing has been working, that’s great. I’m not saying change everything and do something drastic. But strengthen and multiply what’s been working and don’t rest on your laurels. Not ever, but especially not now.

“I’ll just contract and hide and wait for this all to blow over.”

First of all, what if it doesn’t blow over til it’s too late and the damage is irreparable?

And second, why wait? Ever?

Yeah, the economic times are tough right now, but so what? You’re always gonna want more money. You’re always going to want more time to do what you want. Regardless of how the economy and the grand scheme of things is rolling along, you’re gonna want more for yourself than what you currently have. That’s the way we are, us Homo sapiens types. We like to succeed, grow, expand our borders and experience abundance.

So the wrong thing to do is sit around and wait for the world to change into some more acceptable model. Or worse yet, to wait for “your time”.

Your time is now. Your time is also tomorrow. Hell, every single day is yours. But you gotta claim it first.

“We don’t believe you. Give us an example.”

I’m not just blowing smoke. K, maybe a little. But there are companies and individuals who are doing better right now than ever before. If our economic woes were too much to handle and beyond our control, this wouldn’t be the case would it? Everyone would be experiencing the travails equally. QED.

Take the direct mail company that was handling the mailings of none other than the behemoth AIG. For obvious reasons, they parted ways with AIG in August, thereby losing their largest and most stable client. That’s bad enough, but to do so in the midst of this terrible economic climate? Surely the death knell, right? Nope. Their profits are now going out the roof. How’d they do it? Well, they refused to lay down and take it, and instead went on a screaming promotional tear.

How about Men with Pens? They run a booming online business. Yes, even now. How do they do it? They deliver a stellar product and started the largest online contest in the history of the universe. Doing stuff like that, you can’t help but garner attention from a widening circle.

How about Charfish Design, my own little design shop? Again, booming. I just had one of my best weeks ever. How? Promotion. Yelling. Telling everybody I know and meet that I’m here. By answering emails at the speed of light and being here as a stable force that refuses to go away.

How about Leo Babauta and Collis Ta’eed? They’re making noise, writing books, putting up insanely brilliant websites.

The bottom line and THE thing all of these scenarios have in common:

THEY REFUSE TO SHRINK. NOT NOW AND NOT YESTERDAY AND NOT TOMORROW.

Grab what’s yours and hold on tight!

Man, you’ve got to stake your claim. You need to imagine the space you want to control and then make it yours.

You want to start dominating your sphere? Well, dammit, you better have an idea of what that sphere is. Then put the fence around it and never ever let it move unless it’s going out further.

“What now?” It’s up to you.

So you’ve got a choice. And while it may seem like a new choice dictated by our crazy times, it’s the same choice you’ve been making since you were a kid:

You can bend over and take what the universe dishes.

Or…you can out-produce, out-create, out-dream and just outright disagree that the apparent way of things is THE ONLY way of things.

This extravagant bit of cheerleading is only the beginning. Next time, I’m putting on my special suit and breaking out the pom-poms. Subscribe now so you don’t miss it!