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The recession is in full swing. Right before their very eyes, people are seeing their career options shrink. They may be seeing their shelter, food, clothing, and health at risk if they are really suffering. Not finding what they are looking for, they begin to lower their criteria. The thought begins to enter their heads: “I will take anything I can get to keep my head above water…”

STOP!!!! Hit the brakes, people. I want to take this opportunity to illuminate our fear-stricken minds. And for that illumination, I turn to one of the world’s philosophical minds.

“Fear is the path to the dark side.”

These words come to us from the mouth of tiny, green, pointy-eared, but formidable, Jedi master Yoda (yes, Yoda… you got a problem with that?).  Never were truer words spoken. Of all the emotions that humans experience, few can be as destructive as fear. Fear makes people do dumb things and make poor decisions, usually based on the heat of the moment. Fear can easily lead you to do things that you regret later. At its very worst, fear has been responsible for genocide, murder, and war (the dark side, for sure). At the least, fear is responsible for most of the little ways we hold ourselves back and choose the easy path instead of the one less travelled.

Let’s apply this to the recession. People see their career disappear into thin air. Visions of homelessness, poverty, and utter despair flood their minds. Unless a conscious decision is made, fear takes the driver seat and pulls over at the first hint of survival. The person takes anything they can get, which is usually a pretty crappy choice. Chances are, it is not in the long-term interest of the job-seeker. It does not develop their skills, but, for the next few years, that crappy choice will drain the life out of that person, making them resentful, bringing down their job performance and overall self-worth. Fear has gotten the best of them and rewarded them nothing.

I can hear someone shouting back at me, “Well, what would you do? I got mouths to feed. I’ve got to do something. I can’t afford to be picky.” I know exactly what that feels like because I’ve been there.

Don’t take this the wrong way, but that’s fear talking. That response is not based on reason. It is based on fear that nothing better will come along. It’s based on fear that you aren’t good enough to get something better. It’s based on fear that you, with all of your talents and hard work and mental faculties can’t think of a better way. These fears are false.

So, although it is natural to feel fear initially when things fall apart, you can choose whether that fear stays in control of your decisions or not. Fear will not reward you; likely it will leave you with a choice you regret. Reason, optimism, and resourcefulness, however, will create abundant opportunity. Keep in mind, I am not saying you should not be somewhat flexible. I am saying don’t be so quick to take a job that you know isn’t you just because you’re feeling desperate.

So, as you head to the career fair to join the lemming stampede, or submit your resume to hundreds of job postings, don’t sell out to fear. Give yourself the benefit of the doubt and take a deep breath. You will be glad years from now, when you can say with relief you did not succumb to the dark side.
 

 As a real estate agent, your income is not steady. A friend of mine works as a commercial real estate agent, and he only brings in maybe three or four pay checks a year, but each deal is a multi-million dollar deal, so you can imagine what a 5% commission would be. If you are looking into real estate, you need to be dedicated to saving and planning ahead, since, like my friend, you will only bring in money at random intervals throughout the year. Many people go into real estate expecting to continually make the large deals, but you need to be prepared if you go on a drought for a while.

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My wife is always telling me, motherhood is a full-time job. So what happens when the economy sours and households need more income to survive? Someone has to do more work. In a growing number of American households, that someone is mom, going out and taking part-time, often night-shift, jobs to keep the bills paid. Many of these mothers struggle with the change, however, from being away from their children to still keeping the household in order to finding time with their spouse.

Luckily, if you’re a mom who wants to stay home while working, a new generation of jobs can let you stay home and bring home the bacon at the same time through the miracle of telecommunications and the internet. Check out this list:

Customer Service Specialist – Instead of running a customer service call center in a building, dozens of companies have created virtual call centers. Recruits take a few weeks of training. They are then given the software and equipment to take calls from their home. They are required to work a set schedule and they have to be able to guarantee no interruptions during their shift. They typically get paid hourly, sometimes with performance bonuses. JetBlue is among the most popular of these.

Transcriptionist – This service of taking words from audio, video, or handwritten documents to a written one has moved to the internet. Transcription is used in the legal, medical, and translation fields. Transcriptionists receive recordings or documents via email and then type them down. They can get paid either by the job or per hour, depending on the company.

Online Teacher – Online colleges are looking for experienced experts in every field from Literature to Accounting. Just like regular teachers, online teachers are expected to put out learning materials (video or written lectures), grade assignments, and answer student questions. Schedules for these jobs tend to be very flexible.

Accountant – If you hung up your CPA cape when childrearing started, it may be time to bring it out of retirement. With remote access made so easy over the web, you can audit, organize, and earn right from your home PC.

Web Content Writer – Websites are always looking for some insane person to write content for all one million of their pages. Writing can range from funny, thoughtful articles and blog posts to high-volume production jobs. Web writers are expected to complete their work within set timeframes, but, other than that, they can organize their schedules however they see fit.
 

With recessions come massive amounts of stress. Even if you’re not directly affected, you’re still thinking about it, worrying about it, losing precious sleep over it. All hours of the day, the threat of layoffs, inflation, and the loss of your hard-earned comforts dangles over your head like a well-sharpened sword.

All of this stress is self-propagating and, if not dealt with, begins to take a real toll on your mental, emotional, and physical health. Remember, everyone has stress. The difference is in how people deal with it. Do you sweep it under the rug, pretend it’s not there? Do you release it in ways that will create more stress? Do you attack the problem? Do you turn it into positive action that will eliminate future stress? These questions are crucial in controlling stress and staying happy.

Ironically, the first solutions people usually think of when encountering stress may not be the right ones. True, Caribbean vacations and trips to the spa can help. But always you will be thrust back into your stressful routine. Worthwhile, long-lasting stress management will be more about your everyday habits than a dream weekend in paradise (especially in this economy where trips to the tropics are fewer and farther between).

For budget-friendly de-stressing that will last, check out the following five tips:

1.Exercise – Studies have unanimously proven the positive effects of regular exercise on stress. Exercise increases the body’s energy output, increasing your ability to work without becoming fatigued. Vigorous exercise also floods the body with happiness-inducing endorphins and cleans out unfriendly toxins. Exercise regulates weight, cardio-vascular health, diet, and other important factors that can prevent future health problems.

2.Plan – Most of the negative effects of stress come from feeling out of control. A regular (weekly or daily) planning ritual can decrease, if not eliminate altogether, that feeling. Plan out your day. Give yourself ample time to complete your tasks. Budget time for every important part of your life. At the end of each day or week, take stock of what you’ve achieved and where you can improve. Then set new goals you can reach. Control and achievement chase away stress.

3.Organize – Long ago, the human brain developed a driving need to organize the world around it. This ability helped humans to survive and cope in a hostile world. The human brain still feels this need. When things are out of whack, the brain is flooded with anxiety and panic. When you don’t have a routine, your brain goes into survival mode (not good over the long-term). Feed your brain’s need. Organize your life, de-clutter your home, and label that toolbox. Set a comfortable routine you can stick with.  Your brain will thank you, and let you sleep at night.

4.Purge – Laughter has long been hailed as the best medicine. But how about screaming, singing, dancing, and wailing? Civilizations of old held songs, dances, and rituals to purge themselves of emotional blah. When bad things happened, they got together and weeped, wailed, beat their chests, rent their clothing, and sang to the moon. Then they went back to work. In our often emotion-challenged society, try cutting loose every now and then. Laugh and cry. Hold a dance in your backyard. Don’t let all that emotional blah just clog up your insides.

5.Get Perspective – Keeping a roof overhead and food on the table is important. Don’t get me wrong. But we often apply a disproportionate amount of importance on work and money. We are so afraid of the unknown that just the thought of losing work fills us with dread. The thought of having to eat from a garden petrifies us. Why does it scare us so? Because it’s different. It represents a drop in so-called quality of life. But what would really happen to you if you lost your lob? You would have to find another way to make money. You would find a way to survive. You might have to sell your plasma tv or work extra hours. You might lose your house and have to- gulp- rent. But you wouldn’t be struck with boils or burned at the stake. You would survive. With this in mind, remember how good your life really is and proceed accordingly.