The Expat Life: Are You Using The “Economic Climate” As An Excuse?

Posted on 12. Feb, 2009 by Emmanuelle Archer in Blog, Musings & Inspiration
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You may (or may not) have noticed it, but I have refrained so far from alluding to the financial crisis in any way, shape or form. For one thing, I do not feel that you need yet another voice to join the chorus of fear-mongers out there. Another thing is that I do not share the belief that steady, uninterrupted economic growth is the only alternative to chaos – being from Europe and having lived through several recessions there certainly helps with this one!

So I was not going to even go there. Until yesterday.
Do you sometimes spend an entire day feeling like you are having the same conversation over and over again? Well, yesterday was like that.

Clients, friends, relatives, all they wanted to talk about was what they were not doing because of the “economic climate”. Never mind that their jobs were fairly secure, that they had savings and that they had not been significantly impacted by the current economy.

They were all willing to set aside their goals, pass up on opportunities and generally play small… all in the name of fear.

Now don’t get me wrong. We all have our fears, be it fear of rejection, fear of failure, fear of being vulnerable, you name it. However, this “fear of what could happen because of the financial crisis” proves particularly paralyzing, because it sounds reasonable and therefore, it is socially acceptable.

I bet you usually do not go around telling people “I am not starting my own business here in my host country because that would mean making sales calls and I am afraid of rejection”. People would encourage you to look for solutions, work on your fear and find ways to get that business started. Now tell them “I am not starting my own business because of the economy” and everyone will nod gravely. No one, or very few people, will help you look at a different perspective.

In other words, the recession is the perfect cop-out. There, I said it.

Instead of launching into a whole sermon (because preachy and lengthy do not make for very good blog posts), I will link to an excellent article over at Get Rich Slowly: The National Economy Versus Your Personal Economy. J.D. is writing about personal finance, yet his article could be applied to many areas of your life. His final advice? “[…] make your decisions from a position of knowledge and strength, not from a position of fear.”

Emmanuelle