Nearly everyone is feeling the financial crisis, not all at once, but rather in waves. These waves or fluctuations go in and out like the ocean. Each one brings more insight, more truth, more change, and with each contact, ever greater connections that impact our reality. The illusions and ideas that we took for granted are eroding.
We once thought ideas, like banks, are stable and real estate is a safe bet. Ideas about the hedge funds, insurance companies, and financial gurus, to name a few. Ideas about government and capitalism and private business. Ideas about retirement and security. All of these ideas are being challenged, exposed, and the bottom line, once so clear, is a hazy blur. No one seems to know exactly when and how the whole experience known as the financial crisis will end. As quickly as solutions appear, another wave appears, and the impact keeps growing.
More than ever it is time to lead, not follow. Calling this a financial crisis does not do justice to what is really going on and how many areas of life this will impact. Relationships are being torn apart, stress-related health issues are prevalent, mental illness is on the rise and lives are in transition. There are more things than I can write about. Money or lack of money is not the core cause, and neither is it, by itself, the long term solution.
People and organizations will have to go through transformations to win. Getting by is not enough. I believe this is an extraordinary opportunity to step out of the trance of mediocrity and into the ideals we desire. Cooperation, harmony, compassion and truth will have a greater audience than competition, greed, self-interest and illusions of reality designed to serve a few. We can choose to evolve to our highest potential together and rise above the waves. Or, we can choose to do nothing, step into fear and denial and eventually drown in them.
Now is the perfect time to re-define who we are. To internalize our self-worth as separate from our net-worth. To find fulfillment in life and not just on paper (bank statements, share certificates, etc). Time to play the game no matter how challenging…play to win!