Taoist Job Advice In Economic Downturns.

I just got an email from a friend whose company started layoffs and will continue layoffs due to the credit bubble coming apart.

Back long ago when I was paid to make paper airplanes and play checkers (strange story - for another time), I used to work at Boeing. Boeing is a company that lives in boom / bust cycles and layoffs were the fact of life.

An interesting fact I learned is: it's not a bad deal to be in the first lay off wave, since it's easier to find new work (the markets haven't been flooded yet by other people). Also you tend to get better incentives to go at the start of any problem... Ironically, I found it to be a problem that I was considered "valuable" and not laid off. The company used fear on its workers, telling us to be happy since we had a job and then treated workers without respect. So I did some calculations and determined it was best to leave in the first wave and not the other waves, unless of course you really love your job... then you should stay. So when I stopped liking the job and it stopped being fun, I left immediately since bullshit is bullshit and is not pay in the least.

So a lesson to anyone being laid off:

Don't take it personally. It's not a reflection of you... it's a reflection of poor management practices and chaos.

It's only a reflection of you, if you were doing a poor job. If this was the case... This means you are probably not in the right job to fit who you are. This leads me to the second lesson:

Being laid off can be good for some individuals. If you were not happy in the job or were doing poorly... getting laid off can be the event or burst of energy required to help a person redefine their life... not towards work , but towards what you want to be! I know many people who are doing what they love now... because of the energy given to them from being laid off.

The lesson being: be open to possibilities when something seemingly bad happens, it's always possible, always, to make it a positive event! It isn't easy... but it's a good way to approach the problem.

The third and most important point: coming to terms with the current economic problems of the United States. Economically for many reasons, I feel we are at the most major economic turning point within our lifetimes that we will see in the United States.

This cycle of economic change will not happen over a day or two... It's going to unfold over five years in fits and bursts of extreme activity. The market is still in jitters now, but eventually a series of credit bubbles the United States is living upon will "truly" burst and quite a bit will tumble into chaos as a result. The larger problem is we are not upon a single bubble, we are over several very large credit bubbles. The housing market bubble is only one of the smaller credit bubbles. The housing market credit problem is merely a forewarning and sample of what we are facing.

As a Taoist: I don't see this as bad or good. I see it as change. Life is change... So embrace the wild energy of these times to make your life what you want it to be.

My opinion is that the US economy is starting to tank, so we are merely seeing the receding water of the future wave of problems... It's a series of tidal waves... a person can find high ground or can surf it for a wild (so make it fun) ride... However, staying in place typically means being in the middle of the crash.

Following the tidal wave example, one piece of advice: if you can feel or easily see the economic water receding in your life now, then you are for sure not on high enough ground for later.

As a Taoist I always take the surfing option... it's more fun and I get to see the sights as the wave carries me merrily along and I don't mind tumbling about when I misjudge. For most people high ground is the better choice.

Please don't make the mistake many people will: thinking where they are at now, to be the high ground.

You are only on high ground when basing living upon your life , rather than upon burrowed expectations. Since this way you personally can make your life be the high ground...

Please notice how money doesn't directly enter this statement. If you base the answer upon money, chances are very good of being tumbled about by the economic changes coming, as it means playing by old rules and the rules are shifting. The key here is to re-think totally how to answer the problem. I am not saying money won't solve this issue, but it's only a full answer for a select few. So I am looking towards answers which can help more people rather than the already privileged in this larger rigged economic game.

Or

If you are flexible, able to change with the times.

Be aware that with the current series of credit problems: it's going to ripple through the entire economy and not just the financial institutions.


My advice:

• Avoid traps of past expectations. Chaotic times mean new rules of society will emerge. The new rules will not be the same as what it was in orderly times. Anyone who holds on too tightly to the past will often break since the weight of society is often stronger than personal ideals.
  
  Be flexible, so you can retain what matters most to you, as everything else shifts around.
  
  
• Don't be beholden to others in times of crisis. Being beholden to others is a terrible place to be in chaotic times: as they will pass their misfortune onto you. (for example, bad loans).
  
  
• Too many people when preparing for the worse... stop enjoying life.... That is so not living!
  
  We don't live to work. we work to support our life! So even if you decide to prepare for the "worse" ... Take time to fully enjoy your life.. This isn't something that costs money to do, it's an investment in your life with joy, awareness and presence of being...
  
  
• Remember this isn't a change that is happening overnight... We are experiencing a series of major changes occurring over the next 5 years. Be patient with life as it unfolds.
  
  

It's being fully present in your life
that will make the difference.

As a Taoist, if I am wrong: I lose nothing in my lifestyle!

In being flexible, also means always living life fully and as myself. As a result if nothing happens, I have lost nothing. However, if it unfolds as I feel it might, then I simply shift towards a new way of life, each moment, as the moments occur.

Personally these aren't bad times... Rather it's simply a time of change instead of being a time of order... and to a Taoist: every day represents change.

So to live as a Taoist now means nothing at all has changed from our perspective.


peace