Summary:
Tough times. They happen to all of us at some point in some shape or form. It might be the sudden loss of a job or your business revenue might dry up or you may find that the skills you have spent years honing have quickly been rendered obsolete.
So how do you respond? Your reaction to tough times is what defines you, not a sudden twist of bad fortune. The key here is to act proactively – thinking creatively about all of the tools and assets that you have at your disposal to make a come-back. How many of the chronically unemployed devote all of their energy and attention to applying to job after job, submitting blind applications, but don’t spend any time considering how they could build their own small business or leverage their skills as a freelancer?
Maximize your odds to get back in the game by using a holistic strategy – and don’t discount the value that tough times can have in helping you reflect on what your goals really are. Read on to learn more on how you can bounce back from difficult periods.
Transcript:
Yes, times are tough for many of us – maybe especially so in the position you are facing right now.
It happens to all of us. A run of good luck can only go on so long. At some point, we all face a streak of bad luck; a layoff, a lost job opportunity, a dried up market for our business. Challenges and setbacks are inevitable; what is really important is how you respond to them.
I have certainly been there myself. At one point I was essentially bankrupt. My net worth was negative; I owed $1.5 million in debt with no assets.
I had a decision to make at that point. I could wallow in failure and the circumstance I was in. I could brood on the decisions that had set me back and focus on the past. Or I could look forward to the future and what I could do to fashion a new future, a new path forward. I ultimately emerged to create a multi-million-dollar business – taking some risks when some might have advised me to cut my losses and head for safe harbor and get a regular job.
Adversity Is The Mother of Growth And Opportunity
The truth is that many of us will only have the courage and initiative to really stretch ourselves and take a risk when we have nothing left to lose. This is why so many great success stories begin with a firing or lay-off. We often don’t know how much we are capable of until there is nothing holding us back from finding out.
Explore Entrepreneurship
My advice is to not limit yourself to looking for a new job. Yes, update your resume and hit the job boards and go out on interviews. But focusing solely on a new job and working for someone else as the only potential way to bring in revenue is shortsighted. There has never been an easier or more exciting time than now, thanks to all of the options afforded by technology, to launch yourself into entrepreneurship. I’ve found it curious that we continue to think of full-time employment as the safer bet than working for yourself when being an employee necessarily puts you at the risk of someone else’s decisions and whims. Yes, it is a bit easier to coast day to day, if that is your prerogative. But your horizons will always be limited punching a time clock in a way that they won’t be by striking out on your own.
Seek Out Opportunity
So many of us limit the horizons of what we consider for opportunities to what we see on job boards. The truth is that you are never going to see an advertisement for the make-or-break chance that accelerates your career. You need to go out and identify and make those opportunities. Nobody is going to bring them to you.
So when your back is against the wall, take a multi-prong approach to getting out back on your feet. Network, talk your skills up, and think outside the box on how you can stop the financial bleeding. Get the word out among your peers that you are out in the market and ready to work. Heck, just create something – this simple act can reinforce to yourself that you aren’t a passive recipient of your fate, but are actively working to forge your own destiny.
We all go through tough times – but don’t give up hope.
If you can distance yourself enough both mentally and emotionally from your situation, you may even be able to develop some grudging appreciation for your moment of challenge. Yes, appreciation. While it is true that few of us would voluntarily seek to be out of our luck, it can be an opportunity to arise more creatively and boldly than we might have if we were comfortably in a stable place that we did not want to disrupt for fear of rocking the boat.
Maintain Perspective and Focus
It’s important to try to maintain some perspective about challenging times. Just as good times inevitably can’t last forever, neither can the periods of setbacks. Remind yourself each evening that things will turn around, as long as you stay committed and focused on finding a path back. In the meantime, you are left with a simple choice – you can give up or you can persevere.
It can be simper to carry on if you simply focus on making some sort of progress; no matter how incremental each day. Track your progress with tangible numbers. It might be as simple as contacting three of your connections in your network each day to let them know that you are pursuing new opportunities or bidding on three freelance projects each day focused on your skill set. The important thing here is to continually demonstrate to others and to yourself, that you are actively taking steps each day to turn things around. The simple act of continuing to put one foot in front of the other will help you build the momentum to keep going through the tough times.
Don’t Fear Change, Embrace It
The fear of failure is so palpable that many organize their lives specifically around avoiding it or taking any sort of meaningful steps forward. If you have already had the experience of going through the crucible of tough times, you may ultimately be grateful that you have received your own form of empowerment. You have seen the worst that could happen.
I know for me, the experience of going through a crippling bankruptcy made me decide that that would never happen again. And today, even though I take risks, I do everything I can to mitigate them before I dive in. I never put myself in a position of loses that I can’t handle.
You may have been on the other side and seen that you still survive even when the worst happens. A tolerance and willingness to go through failure is a key characteristic that distinguishes the very successful. The key lies in how you mentally frame the experience. Is it purely a terrible occurrence, or does it also hold value as a learning and growth experience for you? I’m reminded of Steve Jobs’ iconic 2005 commencement address at Stanford University, where he discussed how being fired at the age of 30 from Apple ultimately “freed him” to enter what he called “one of the most creative periods of my life.” As he described the period that led up to his involvement with Pixar Animation and his ultimate triumphant return as Apple CEO, he told the graduates, “The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything.”
Stay Connected and Open to Opportunity
It surely is a lot easier to be so open to difficult times in retrospect. We shouldn’t diminish the very real psychic and financial toll that periods of struggle can take on you. But be heartened that every great success story involves a period of going through valleys of despair and uncertainty. You may find solace in reading biographies of other business leaders who have fueled their success through tough times (time for reading and reflection being another potential benefit of going through a slow patch). Resist the temptation to shut yourself off from the world as well. A support network can not only point you to new opportunities, but provide you with emotional sustenance and remind you of the other things in your life to be grateful for.
What strategies would you leverage if the bottom were to fall out tomorrow and you were to lose your business or job? What tools do you have to fall back on; savings, connections, skills, that you could employ to get back on your feet?
And you can get back on your feet. And not just back on your feet, you can prosper and become the greatest you have ever been if you will start now, taking that first step. Making that decision to take charge and move your life from where it is today, to where you want it to be. It’s time to make a commitment, to yourself to do all you can do to become as great and as prosperous as you can be.
You can also learn more by visiting my website: tonyneumeyer.com and registering to receive free trainings articles and more. Also subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow me on Facebook. You can get your copy of The 7 Minute Millionaire and check out my other books here: https://tonyneumeyer.com/books/.
