Our local university offers a non-credit course on career change three times a year and asks me to teach it.  Typically, 12-20 students sign up - but not since the downturn in the economy.  In the last several months, it has been offered twice.  Two students signed up in January and six for the class that started in March. 

At our first session in March, several of those six were dumbfounded.  Why so few people, they wondered?  At a time when more people’s jobs are less secure than they’ve been in years, why would people not have signed up in record numbers?

     Why indeed. Why are many people economizing personally when their wages have remianed the same?  Why are we not buying stocks when they’re on sale?  Why are so many companies so illogiacally cutting back on sales and marketing?  Why are they not taking advantage of deeply discounted advertising rates?

     The answer is something Mel Robbins, radio talk show host and coach, in an article titled “What Now?” calls a “Recession Mindset”.  A mindset is a filter through which we see events.  (Learn more about how filters work in my e-newsletter article, “Choose Useful Beliefs”.)  A positive mindset will cause us to see chalnges as opportunities and encourage us to think creatively about those opportunities.  A “Recession Mindset” will cuase us to see threat, risk and trouble, and it will tend to shut down any creative thinking.

     Someone with a “Recession Mindset” will freeze or hunker down, try to keep a low profile, and wait until the crisis is past.  When we’re in that mode, it’s easier to say “no” than “yes” and initiative seems dangerous. 

     Unfortunately, this is just as likely to be a recipe for disaster as for survival.  The minute we stop thinking, we lose our power - our power both to see opportunity and to figure out what to do with it. As Mel Robbins advises, even if we’re panicked or overloaded by negative economic information, we need to make sure our “business acumen and decision-making” stay sharp and active. 

     This is as true for people who are employed as it is for business owners. Even though a steady paycheck large enought to meet your needs might tempt you to be passive and the economy might tempt you to hunker down, true safety lies in keeping a close eye on what is happening in your company and knowing where you next best opportunity outside the company might lie.