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.

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!we should not spend as much as we used to anymore because we need to consider many things especially if you have a family.

In times like this, everybody is moving backwards. Am I not right in saying that? That everyone’s taking steps backwards so that if a big hand or wave came striking, they 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.

These moves are probably necessary to ensure survival (and there’s nothing more important than survival in this world, of course) as it would be impractical to continue living a lavish life considering the future of our economy today.

There’s one thing I would like you think 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 on your personal goals as well or even stop pursuing them? Are your goals, personal dreams, self growth, understand and pursuit headed for the backseat…or worse, the booth??

We 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 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, eating 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! Why on earth would be 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 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 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.