How to End the Recession
In an earlier article, I wrote about, as Franklin Delano Roosevelt essentially said, "we have nothing to fear but fear itself."
Below is the rest of that statement, which warrants further reflection.
"So, first of all, let me assert my firm believe that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." FDR - you can read the entire speech here
Think about the last part - "Which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."
This is, in my opinion, one of the big contributors to the current economic difficulty we're experiencing. At a time when, in order to restart our economy, we need to be moving fearlessly forward, too many people are pulling back or, worse yet, retreating into their cocoons.
Companies, instead of stepping out boldly into the marketplace, are "hunkering down" and hoping the storm blows over before they go out of business.
Individuals, worried about their security, are cutting back on all but essential spending.
Banks, once burned, are reluctant to lend again, thereby cutting off the credmarkets and shooting themselves in the foot.
All of these, while understandable, are compounding the problem and standing in the way of a faster recovery.
Holding this problem in place are the steady stream of negative messages from the media. It's not my intention to make them the fall guy, but, let's face it, all we hear on the evening news or read in our daily newspapers are more and more stories about how bad things are.
It's interesting to note that one of the things Roosevelt did to hel pturn the situation around in the 1930's was to create a "Mastermind" alliance to start crafting more positive messages and stories of successes rather than failures.
He assembled both houses of Congress, positive thinkers like Napoleon Hill and Norman Vincent Peale, the leading newspaper publishers and radio station owners of the day, and church leaders of every denomination.
Their efforts, combined with the efforts of ordinary citizens, produced a wave of positivity that was powerful enough to start turning the tides of the Great Depression.
It's an interesting aside that Hill did not write his, now famous, book, Think and Grow Rich, with the intention of publishing it. He wrote it to keep himself in a positive frame of mind in order to get through these difficult times.
The time has come, once again, for those of us who believe in the power of the mind to start following Hill's model and begin to spread a positive message of hope and recovery.
You can help
Email, call or write your congressional representatives and ask that they and, yes, President Obama, model the strategy developed by Hill and FDR.
Write emails and letters to the editors of your local newspapers, asking them to start "singing a different song."
Please, share this message with your friends as well as on social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and so on.
Jim Donovan is author of This Is Your Life, Not a Dress Rehearsal www.jimdonovan.com Copyright 2009. All Rights Reserved.
