Surviving Recession

i) Sleep a lot - ii) Bury your head in the sand - iii) Cry in your beer

ok - now we've got the don't do's out of the way - just what can we do to help insulate ourselves from this world-wide recession that's still biting way too deep for most of our comfort?

If you are fortunate enough to have stayed in work, commit to doing your work in the best way you can every day in order to keep it. Be positive and cheerful around your colleagues and especially your superiors no matter what stresses you find yourself coping with. Find ways outside of work to deal with those stresses, go to the gym, take up running, channel them into exercise of some kind in order to help deal with the emotional wear and tear that they inflict on you but don't let them show in work.

Employers appreciate positive, motivated staff even more in uncertain times and your colleagues will look up to you and appreciate your humour and calmness when all around them feels a little unstable.

Look at ways of managing your household budget so that you can save on bills and food shopping. Plan weekly menus so that you aren't buying a load of food that either goes waste or doesn't make complete meals - did you ever do that? I find if I go shopping when I'm hungry, I'm likely to end up getting home with bags full of shopping that doesn't match so I have a range of incomplete meal ingredients that require more shopping to make them work...

Are you being as economical as possible with your utilities? Is there something you could be doing to save money on your electricity / gas bill? Do you really need that complete TV package? Could you be watching more of your TV online and paying little or even nothing for it? Can you downgrade your mobile phone subscription?

These are just little tips that it's worth revisiting regularly to review your needs and household expenditure.

Many people are also looking at extra ways of making money either on or off-line, taking second jobs or getting involved in network marketing opportunities. This can be an expensive option if you are new and unsure and don't find someone helpful to mentor you in this minefield. Many of the successful online entrepreneurs spend years and lots of money to get ot the point where they are making enough money to replace and supersede their employee income so if you take this option don't be fooled or lulled by some of the dramatic claims that you will come across out there.

Most of the things that look too good to be true, are in fact too good to be true so if you are going to go down this road, do your homework before joining anything and be aware of what it is going to cost you and what you are going to have to do in order to earn money with that opportunity.

Many people aren't willing or confident enough to do what it takes to be successful in the online marketing world and those that don't practise self awareness are the most disillusioned in the shortest time so don't let yourself become one of their number.

Be sure about what the opportunity involves and be honest with yourself about your skills and confidence - can you do what's necessary? If not are you prepared to learn to do what's necessary and do you have the drive to do what's necessary?

I am a pretty self aware person and yet there have been times in the past when I have kidded myself about what I was prepared to do and lost money in the process lol. It's a learning curve!

So, stay positive, focus your stresses and frustrations into exercise to get rid of that emotional build up, practise self awareness, review your expenditure regularly and be strict with yourself about what you really need right now and if you are planning on looking at ways of making money online - do your homework first :)

Thank you for reading this far - other hubs of mine that you may be interested in include: How Do You View Success? and Why Do You Do What You Do?