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Always Moving Forward
by Marsha Maung
Sept 16th, 2008
Other than back in 1997, I’ve never seen so many sad faces during family or friends gatherings. Everyone’s lamenting over the same thing and I agree. Today’s economy is more than solemn. It’s sad because no matter where you are, you’re bound to be a little affected by this storm. The storm and tide of economic slowdown affected almost everyone I know…the slowdown of the US economy, and the hike in gas prices
At this time, cut back, cut back, cut cut CUT!!
Most financial advisors will be advising their companies or personal financial managers will be telling their clients to cut down. I am no financial advisor or personal funds manager, but I would say that they’re right about cutting down...not now! Instead, we need to consider many important and permanent things in our lives, especially if we have a family.
Taking steps back is a form of survival tactic. When a tiger approaches, we walk backwards (without turning around). At this moment, we're taking steps back so that if a big hand or wave came striking or soaring through the skies, we wouldn’t be the first few to go down? As it is, we’re cutting back, we’re cutting loses, we’re not going out so much anymore, we sell our stocks and shares, we move to a cheaper place, we replace the car, move the kids to public schools, etc.
Only the foolish and insane would continue to live a lavish life when the economy is in turmoil
Only the foolish would continue to live a lavish life...the foolish and the insane because it would be impractical to continue doing so considering the dim future peering back at us today.
There’s one thing I would like you think about thoroughly about, though. In this horridly scary time when you’re not even sure if you’re going to remain employed tomorrow, have you ever thought about your personal goals? I’m just going to ask you outright, are you ACTUALLY going to cut back or back down on your personal goals or stop pursuing them althogether? Are your goals, personal dreams, self growth and pursuit for a better future headed for the backseat…or worse, the booth??
We are ALL going through a difficult time (even as I am writing this, I’ve cried buckets of tears and right now, jets of tears are simply shooting out from my eyes) and as we go along, we’re going to change. Our personalities will change…and so will our outlook about the future.
But is your self progress going to take a back seat?
But I am going to ask you this…does that mean that we should regress in terms of personal growth too? I am praying (really hard) that your answer is NO. By golly, we’re already cutting back on expensive beef, rice, drinking a cheaper brand of wine (or no wine), using less pencils, stop the kids from visiting their friends because driving them to and from friends’ place has become so costly that the heart (more like the pocket) aches with every mile...I hope none of us are selling scrap metal or collecting coke cans, though! Since we're already cutting back on so much in life, in this desperately, annoying financiall frustrating time, why on earth would we start cutting back on personal growth as well?
In fact, if I had my say in this, I would say that this is the best time for you to learn a new trick and pack them up your sleeves. Some people have other terms for it, like pack up your deck of cards, clean up your act, roll up your socks…WHATEVER. But self-growth does not stop…not even in our ailing economy.
In times like these, remember, the best direction to look to is forward. It’s difficult, I know. We’re more inclined to look to the floor so that our friends don’t see that we’ve traded in our expensive lipstick for something a little bit more affordable like Revlon. Our hearts would be filled with deep regret. When this happens, we’re allowing ourselves to sink into a depressive depth that we many have trouble getting out of in the future.
Instead, set your sight forward. Think to yourself, every single day….’Are you moving forward on a personal level?’
Your business could be suffering a huge blow or you might have been given a big pay cut, but are moving forward as a person in an important part of surviving this tyrannical wave of depression. We have to ensure that even though we’re wearing less (not too much less, I hope) eating less and living in less-than-top-class condos or apartments now, are your goals heading in the right direction?
If you keep packing yourself up now, when the economy gets better, you'll be way ahead of others. WWAAAAYYYY ahead.
If you keep your head focused while cutting back financially, let me tell you what you’re doing to your FUTURE. You’re upping yourself! Yes, you’re packing on power for the future. After all, all you’re losing on right now are the material stuff, so be it. Teach yours kids to deal with the fact that Nintendos would have to go un-repaired for a month…that’s when the next paycheck is coming in.
And at the end of the day, when you manage to ride out the bad economy and regain your financial footing, you would have doubled or tripled your own self in terms of strength and motivation because you continued to move forward when others fell on their knees.
So, don’t. When the economy is down, look forward and up.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marsha Maung is a Malaysian-based freelance writer with two kids. She spends her time ferrying her kids around, watering her plants, writing web content, SEO stuff, ghostwriting books and also indulges in the occasional Facebook-ing. Visit her blog for more dirty details on the life and times of a mother, writer, designer, housekeeper, coffee-maker, poop-wiper, chef...and just about everything else under the sun.
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Listen up! I am a very nice person, if you think this article is neat and you'd like to publish it in your website, all's cool with me but with one condition. Only one and from the bottom of my heart, I wish that you would, in all sincerity, allow me my one single wish....to place the following codes into the your website at the END OF THE ARTICLE. It's not going to disrupt much, so please do it?
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<b>Marsha Maung</b> is a Malaysian-based <a href="http://www.marshamaung.com" target="_blank">freelance writer</a> with two kids. She spends her time ferrying her kids around, watering her plants, writing web content, SEO stuff, ghostwriting books and also indulges in the occasional Facebook-ing. Visit her <a href="http://www.marshamaung.blogspot.com" target="_blank">blog</a> for more dirty details on the life and times of a mother, writer, designer, housekeeper, coffee-maker, poop-wiper, chef...and just about everything else under the sun.
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