Learning a Lesson From the Economy

Other than the war, it's all everyone is talking about: gas prices, grocery costs, layoffs and unemployment. With gas over four bucks a gallon, everything is taking a real bite. Prices are rising constantly, but not a lot of folks are getting pay raises, are they?

I believe that we create our own reality, to a large extent. Whatever we spend out time and energy on, will dominate our thoughts and therefore our behavior. If we are stuck in the rut of worrying about everything that is really out of our control anyway, we are going to live out that negativity in every part of our lives.

I decided I wasn't going to worry about it. I'm a freelancer and I've been a single mom for 27 years. I've been dead broke more times than I care to remember. I have a car in the driveway with gas in the tank, I have enough groceries that I'm still 30 pounds heavier than I would like, and my teenager just got home from 10 days at Bible Camp. Hmmm, there doesn't seem to be too much lack around here.

Before I made the decision to let go of what I can't control, I worried because I saw a bit of a slowdown in work. Once I let go and decided to spend my extra time working at things like bidding more jobs than I used to and playing around with my creative writing skills, I suddenly realized that the work started coming back in the door.

I heard from a client that I hadn't heard from in a while, I got some extremely nice comments from a couple other clients, as well as offers to pitch them some ideas and I picked up some extra work from my very first client, who has also been an amazing mentor for me in this crazy world of freelancing. (By the way, her name is Sue LaPointe and you should check out her blog- after mine of course. It's on my blog list!

The point is, I learned a lesson from the economy problems. When things are getting a bit tough, the more you focus on them, the worse it's going to get. When you let go, things start looking up sooner than you think. I think they call it "Let Go and Let God"- and I actually learned that lesson a long time ago from some friends of mine. I think they also call it K.I.S.S. (Keep it simple, stupid!) Yep, same friends.

So give up already! You've been broke before and you probably could stand to lose a couple pounds too. The freelance writing business is thriving. Now, get to work!

Teresa