How the coming Presidential election will change your finances

How the coming Presidential election will change your finances!

“Can anybody remember when times were not hard and money not scarce?”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) (1)

When I was 16 years of age, my mother passed away following a long, valiantly fought battle with cancer. Being a “momma’s boy” in every sense of the word, I suddenly found myself alone and unprepared for the harsh realities that were my new existence. While I won’t profess to being a particularly quick learner, it did not take too terribly long for me to realize that nobody else was going to coddle and baby me, like my mother had, anymore. So, I picked myself up, dusted myself off and ventured tentatively into my new reality. At first, I felt frightened, alone and woefully inadequate. However, as I grew in both confidence and capability, the inevitable result of taking responsibility for one’s own situation in life, a whole new world of possibilities unfolded before me.

Today’s tumultuous economy has many feeling similarly to how I did at 16: frightened, alone and woefully inadequate. Faced with corporate downsizing, job loss, early retirement, Medicare cut-backs and the like, all of which are compounded by the ever increasing disparity between income levels and the rising cost of living, many find themselves looking outside of themselves for the solution.

Thus, as we near another presidential election, multitudes are hoping that the results of this year’s election will be the catalyst needed to turn the economy around and bring an end to their individual economic blight. Many subject themselves to further unnecessary stress as they attempt to shoulder the responsibility for events and circumstances outside of their immediate control, like the economy, because they feel so powerless to change anything. Jim Rohn, “America’s Foremost Business Philosopher”(now deceased), used to have what he called his “not much” list. (2) For instance, if the Democrats succeed in retaining the White House next month, how much will your personal economic situation likely change in the coming months? “Not much!” And, if the Republicans succeed in winning the White House next month, how much will your personal economic situation likely change? “Not much!”

By focusing on all that they cannot really change, people tend to not even be aware of the one thing that they can change: their attitude, their response; the one thing that is the only thing! The only way the economy is going to improve is the same (and only) way society is going to improve: one person at a time! And it starts with each and every one of you, on the inside, from the inside-out. Things won’t improve by looking to the President to solve it all. Things won’t ever improve by looking to sources outside yourself to solve them. Improving you is the solution.

Start by focusing on what you can control. The only variable you ever have any real control over whatsoever is yourself. And, of that, really only over your attitude of mind. Viktor Frankl, a survivor of four WWII concentration camps of the Holocaust, wrote in Man’s Search For Meaning, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” (3) You get to choose your response to any and every given situation.

The key to turning around the economy and the nation rests squarely between each and every one of your shoulders, in your hearts and minds! Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that your vote does not count next month. It does. But, once you have placed your vote, get to work on you. The one thing, which is the ONLY thing, you have control over is your attitude of mind… and that is the ONLY thing you need to change in order to change EVERYTHING!

Dr. Jon M. Ketcham, Author of iContractor 1 & Dream re-Kindler to Earth-bound Travelers of Light

Bibliography

(1)  Quotationsbook.com/quote/10912/

(2)  The Challenge To Succeed, Jim Rohn, Disc 1, Track 13

(3)  Man’s Search For Meaning, Viktor Frankl p. 66