January 2009 - Janelle's Blog

Every time I turn on the TV the past few days, I hear about another company closing its doors and displacing thousands of workers. People easily step into a panic mode when they feel they are losing control of their lives.

I have believed for years that living a simplified lifestyle is the best advice for averting financial crisis, especially in economically slippery times. In an article in The Economist, Harvard Business School professor, John Quelch, spoke of today's new consumers as the Simplifiers.

We see the influence of our shaky economy in the way people are spending money. They are reacting in fear and holding back on buying unnecessary things. John Quelch identifies four characteristics of the Simplifiers.

Starting Over

"I am looking forward to starting over," she told me after we had spoken a few minutes about our plans for the New Year. I had only known this woman for a short time when she spilled out her hurts.

"Yes," I said, "It is a time of celebration of all of the dreams you have for the future."

"I want everything that went wrong to end," she told me. "I want a new beginning."

Don't we all feel that way to various degrees? There is such a tendency for us to rehearse our troubles and to remind ourselves of everything we did wrong. The more we dwell on these things, the more we lose focus on the place we want to be in the future.

I know you have dreams and hopes of what you want to accomplish this year, as I do. But, think about the effect of your actions.

When we rehearse our troubles, we lose sight of our blessings. We get on a treadmill of doing and saying the same things over and over until even we are bored at our own problems. Instead of rehearsing our problems, let's review the past year and see what we did right.