How to Stay Positive While Finances are Low

Staying positive is really hard to do when you’re going through difficult times, financially.  But you have to keep on pressing forward even when you don’t want to.  Right now you may be suffering financially, due to down-sizing, lay-offs, a firing or waiting on a dream to materialize into financial success–whatever the case, all you know is that your finances are in shambles.  How do you keep a positive outlook and go on with life while the rest of the world seems unconcerned?   Below are things that I do to keep me on track and I’d like to share them with you.

• You have to convince yourself that things ARE going to get better.  The power of positive thinking is one of the things that keeps me grounded and from losing all hope.  You’ve got to remember that things could be worse, although you wish they were better now .  It helps to go back in time, mentally, and remember when things were  worse, and realize that those were times when you thought things were at their worst and somehow you made it through.  Positive thinking takes a lot of effort when you’re going through financial hardship, but it can be accomplished.  You can choose to mope around and think about the haven’ts, or, you can choose to concentrate on what you do have and what is positive in your life.  Don’t let a negative balance in the finance department spoil the positive things that are going right in your life at this time. 
• You can’t put expectations on anyone else except for yourself.  When you put expectations on others, it’s a sure fire way of getting let down and disappointed.  You’ve got to realize that you can’t control how others react or don’t  act as to what’s going on in your life.  Back in the day, you could depend on community, family, friends and sometimes total strangers to rally in support for your cause.  With the recession in full swing, everyone is busy making sure they don’t fall into the same situation that you are in. 
• You’ve got to get up each day and do something–anything–to move you closer to your goals.  The satisfaction you feel at the end of the day, knowing that you did something to help yourself, is a boost within itself.  Life would be so much sweeter if you had help, but sometimes the only help you’ll have will come from within.  If you’re unemployed, you’ve got to get up everyday and search for a job.  If you DON’T look, you CAN’T find.  It will get frustrating, but you have to do SOMETHING as opposed to doing NOTHING.  Actions leads to results.  Say you’re a writer like myself, and you have a book that you’re waiting to hit the best seller list; what do you do in the meantime?  You certainly don’t stop writing.  Write until you can’t write anymore.  You have to take the focus off of what isn’t happening and concentrate on what you can do to get through the days while waiting on success to happen.  And know that IT will happen.