Steve Yastrow

Let’s face it – a lot sucks these days.  The economy is in the tank.  People are freaking out about all sorts of things.  People are losing their jobs and businesses are closing their doors.

I decided early on that I wasn’t about to take it lying down.  As I’ve said in a number of previous posts (here, here, here and here) newsletters (here, here, here and here) and a teleseminar, in addition to many private conversations with clients and colleagues, the state of our businesses on 1/1/2010 has less to do with the Dow Jones average, the unemployment rate or the liquidity of the credit markets than it does with what we, personally, do to improve our situations.  Yes, those macroeconomic factors hurt.  Ok, now what are you going to do about it?

I’m happy to say that I’ve been taking my own medicine, built around the Six Recalibration Questions in my recent teleseminar.  I feel completely energized, because this situation has forced me to come up with new ideas, engage with more people, create new programs, question my beliefs … among many other things.  I can’t believe how much I’ve done already in January that I would not have done if things were rosy.

Yes, of course, I wish the economy were booming.  But I’m not going to let an opportunity to live through something this intense go to waste.  I am going to use it as a time to learn, create, engage, challenge myself and others, stretch, think, try new things, stop doing other things … etc.

One of my main themes is that this is not a recession, it’s a recalibration.  Recessions imply cycles, and tempt us to wait for things to come back.  Recalibration implies that we need to reset all of our expectations, strategies and actions.   This is an incredible, however unwelcome, opportunity to do just that.