Recession Despair

Recession

OMG! Did you hear about the couple in California facing complete despair? In 2009,  both got let go from their jobs and lost their house.  Their anguish was so high they took their children’s lives and then killed themselves. No matter how bad things might appear today, there is always tomorrow. Then the day after that. As long as you breath, there is the prospect for recovery.

Yes things can be bleak. Let me be the lone still voice that encourages you. I have been there. What I learned is you are not your job or your possessions. You are that being that lives inside your body. That being is still there when your job is gone, or even tragically when your body stops functioning.

This month I taught a 5 year old girl to ski for the first time. She was laughing, falling, picking herself back up and trying again. I teach lots of people but she was by far the happiest kid I have ever seen. Whenever I think about her, I hear that laugh and begin to smile myself.

If you lose your job, your inner being is screaming for you to remember that happy 5 year old inside of you. OK, so maybe for you 5 was not a happy time, try to find a moment in your life where you were completely happy. In your bliss. Choose to celebrate the person you were then.

We are in a recession and the question on everyone’s mind how long will it take to get out of it? Well, we have been in one for the last 8 years, at least in one mentally. We have been pursuing a lack mindset now since 9/11. We saw the price of oil skyrocket so high, so many people are loosing their homes, and we are facing a terrible credit crisis. Despair, Despair, Despair everywhere.

In times like these we must find solutions rather than point the finger and blame. Experiment with ways to increase gas mileage. Let’s play around and find a better method to transport ourselves. Let’s uncover new ways to tap electricity.

Only a few years ago it cost 89 cents per gallon for gasoline at a total cost to fill up the tank of $14 to go 400 miles. Let’s put on our thinking caps and focus on a method that allows us to go 800 miles for $14.

Let’s do without oil. Here is a company who is quickly on its way toward that goal.
You can find out more about it at http://betterplace.com Or, there is an initiative that has been spending the last 5 years working towards gasoline technology that gets 100 miles per gallon. You can find out more at http://autoxprize.com

What always powers an economy out of downturns is innovation. It is time we redevelop and rethink how we move ourselves around. Take charge. Find ways to bring concepts that either the X-prize or Better Planet’s electric ideas to market viability this year.

That not only will make any 5-year-old laugh or 65-year-old. I for one would love it if by the time a 5-year-old turns 65 that we finally have vehicles that float in the air rather than use roads that deforest the planet. But, that’s another article all together.