When plans must change
posted in Obstacles |I have spent a great deal of time designing my life so it’s exactly how I want it, with the right balance of work, family and leisure time, but now the economic situation is making me nervous. I wonder if I should be worrying more about money. I wonder if I should be earning more money for when bumps in the economy occur like they have now. I’m worried that I’ll have to change my plans.
There’s no way that I could have predicted a downturn like this one. In some ways, I guess, this is the “emergency” that I’ve been planning for. I learned that I’m supposed to have an emergency fund and be saving for retirement and to keep my debt as low as possible. I’ve done all of that. I wish I had more. I wish I had more in my emergency fund and had even less debt, but I’m in pretty good shape. Now the problem is to not freak out and remember that my goals are still the same, I just need to keep working on things slowly.
These types of crises slow things down. What we thought we could achieve in just a couple of years will probably take longer. I sometimes feel like there’s something wrong with me if I change my timelines. Sometimes I have to remember that I had no control over this economic downturn and I need to try to roll with the punches.
The trick now is to breathe, make relatively safe decisions and continue doing whatever is needed to advance goals. When you get tense about world events, go back to my concept of “creative living. Think of creative ways to manage during these hard times.
I’ve already worked on a list of what luxuries I can do without if I start earning less money. I realize, though, no matter what, my plans probably need to change somewhat. Remember that if there is a big problem, if you lose a job or have other difficulties, keep your eye on your goals, but revise the steps you need to take to achieve them. Things may take longer or you may take a different path. Doing these things is frustrating and can make us feel beaten, but try to remember to just recalculate what you need to get where you’re going, while taking into account the new circumstances in your life.
