How To Cope With Uncertain Financial Times
The media is full of doom and gloom about the global economy arising from the COVID-19 induced economic lockdowns. Whether it’s rising unemployment, the prospect of further mass layoffs, house sales/values stalling or the leisure, hospitality, and travel sectors being on life support, things look bad and are likely to get worse.
Pick a Letter
Some experts are predicting a V-shaped recovery, where we see a sharp bounce back to pre-COVID highs. Others are predicting a W-shaped recovery, where we yo-yo up and down for a period. And other experts predict a U-shaped recovery, where we bumble along at much less growth for longer, before eventually getting back on track.
The truth is that no one knows how things will turn out.
So, how should you navigate these uncertain times?
The Conventional Thinking
You can put your head in the sand and pretend that everything is normal, or you can stress and worry that the world is going to hell in a handcart. But, more likely, you’ll be somewhere between these two extremes.
Conventional advice suggests various strategies for coping with uncertainty and achieving a pleasant or desired outcome, including:
- Positive thinking and optimism
- Creating a vision board for your desired outcome
- Setting SMART goals
- Refusing to accept that failure or unsatisfactory results are possible
- Having more money, in the form of income or savings, will make you happier and/or more secure
- Increasing and maintaining your motivation to succeed
If these approaches work for you, then, by all means, use them. But if you want some other, more effective, ideas for coping with what might be tough economic times, you might want to consider some other ideas.
An Unconventional Approach
Embrace it: Journalist Oliver Burkeman[i], who studied positive thinking, advises “[...] learning to enjoy uncertainty, embracing insecurity, stopping trying to think positively, becoming familiar with failure, even learning to value death.”
Cultivate tranquillity & calm: The ancient Stoics taught that the ideal state of mind wasn’t excited optimism, but a calm indifference towards one’s circumstances. You do this by turning towards negative emotions and experiences, not shunning them, and scrutinizing them.
Judgment is all: The only thing you can control is your judgment. As Shakespeare said in Hamlet, “There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” Replace irrational judgments with rational ones.
Worst case scenario: Regularly reminding yourself that you might lose any of the current things you enjoy is an antidote to anxiety. By pretending that you’ve already lost them, you can then get comfortable that you could cope with that, and thereby remove the fear of loss.
Forget goals: Our desire to pursue goals is drive by our dislike of uncertainty. But while having clear goals of our preferred vision of the future might alleviate our present feelings of insecurity, it doesn’t help us achieve them. And goal-free living makes us happier as we can live more in the moment and less in the past or the future.
Work with what you have: Imagining what you can achieve with the means and resources available to you now, gives you more flexibility and capability, and is more empowering than setting lofty goals.
Focus on the downside: Thinking what could go wrong, rather than what could go right, will keep you calmer and more rational than focusing on the upside.
Forget security: Security is an illusion, and each generation believes that they are uniquely living in troubled and uncertain times. It’s easy to believe that more money will buy more security, but if you don’t feel intrinsically and psychologically safe, it won’t help. As the American Buddhist nun, Pema Chodron says, “Things are not permanent, they don’t last, there is no final security.”
Reduce attachment: Buddhism defines the human desire to cling to things we like as the root of all suffering. The less attached you are to anything – your looks, your wealth, your lifestyle, or your status - the less pain you’ll endure when you eventually lose these.
Mediate: Your thoughts are not you, and if you stop thinking so much, you won’t somehow cease to exist or enjoy living. Daily meditation reduces anxiety, fear, and worry. Try it!
“Security is an illusion, and each generation believes that they are uniquely living in troubled and uncertain times. It’s easy to believe that more money will buy more security, but if you don’t feel intrinsically and psychologically safe, it won’t help.” Tweet This
These ideas are just a handful of alternative ways to cope with and navigate not just uncertain times, but to worry less and live more during the precious time you have left. You will eventually lose everything you have, are or have ever been, when you die, so use the time you have left wisely, whatever the economic outcome.
Warm regards,
Jason
[i] As explained in his book The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking.
You might like to watch my Money Minute video below on the topic of embracing change.
