Making The Most Of A Personal Disaster: Crisis Leads To Change

Finances are a challenge to most relationships. Finding ways of cutting back is rarely enjoyable. Families gather around the kitchen table while going through the paper looking for Coupon Deals and trying to Find Great Deals that could save a few dollars in the budget. Some people stop spending money on dinning out, or going to the movies. For almost everyone, the experience of revising a budget results in the feeling of lack and sacrifice. Few people see this as a chance for reevaluating the fundamentals of their lives. Challenging times call for innovative thinking and creative solutions. These solutions are sometimes simple, sometimes radical, but always a revelation. With the right attitude, a financial crisis, or a call to cut back can be the beginning of a new and better life.

If someone is laid off and their source of income is suddenly uncertain, then all of the security disappears. It’s not a bad thing. It is just a thing. The money is uncertain, so what the income provided is no longer certain to be there. Decisions have to occur. For some folks a crisis is an awakening. What is necessary is simplified to a razor sharp awareness. Homes are foreclosed on, cars are being repossessed, jobs are disappearing and yet in many corners there is an excitement building about the experience of living. When a building is burning people get off the couch. Getting off the couch is when the experience of living is heightened.

Risk is one of the most basic necessities of being fully alive. If there is no risk there is no change. The first person to eat a tomato took a risk. Crossing the street is a risk. Asking out the dark eyed girl or handsome guy is a risk. Renting a car is a risk. Standing up for personal beliefs is a risk. The whole economy is depends on risk. This has led to an environment where people want to reduce the risks they are taking, making sure their money is safe, their investments secure and their family is provided for. A full life experience depends on risk, yet most people are consumed with guarding against risks. While temperance and caution is a wise fiscal choice, it dampens the experience of living if it governs every minute. A crisis knocks us off the couch and brings risk into our life. For many people there is an epiphany; if there is no safe place, why not start doing the things deemed too risky to do before?

A crisis is a time to let go of old ways of thinking and start fresh. This could lead to actually letting go of property, houses, books or pictures. A lot of people think their career was going to lead to certainty and comfort. If it didn’t maybe there is a career more rewarding that should be pursued. Is the McMansion what was wanted or what was expected? When the world changes on the outside, it is a great time to create personal change on the inside.

Life is meant to be lived with passion, not watched from the couch. When difficulties appear they should be embraced with open arms for they bring with them the winds of change. The challenge is how to embrace a crisis and let it work its magic.