Times Of Uncertainty

During times of uncertainty it’s easy to get caught up in a cycle of fear and doubt. This is completely understandable as you may have real and serious concerns like how will you pay your rent, mortgage, utilities or even buy food. Once you get caught in this cycle and let fear drive your thought process it will be even harder to come up with solutions and ultimately get you back on your feet. Below are some things that I think can help and what I am currently practicing.

Process The Situation

When something unexpected occurs it can be a shock to the system. The more dramatic the occurrence (like a sudden loss of your job) the greater the shock. I think it’s natural human behavior to react emotionally and that’s ok. You might go through a slew of emotions like anger, sadness and fear. Spend some time venting, complaining and worrying. But don’t spend too much time in this phase. The longer you’re here the harder it will be to move to the next step in the process. Eventually you need to get to a place of acceptance. Once you accept the hand you were dealt you can move on to the problem solving phases.

Address Your Immediate Needs

Once you have made it through the mourning phase it’s time to pick yourself back up and start the problem solving phase. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed in this phase so try tackling one thing at a time. Write a list (yes pen and paper) of the top issues, in priority order, that you need to address. I find it helps to focus on one particular problem or task than trying to solve everything at once. Attempting to solve all of your problems resulting from the current situation will cause you to feel overwhelmed and limit your ability to think clearly. Move down your list one at a time and either write down your next step to solve that problem or jot down a couple of options.

Brainstorm

This is the time to be completely open to all solutions. The more you can clear your head and focus on a specific problem the better your ability will be to think creatively. Write down everything that pops into your head, no matter how silly it might seam or unrealistic it might appear. An idea that might not seem to be helpful at first could morph into something else that opens opportunities for you. This could also be a good time to consider a completely different line of work or long term strategy. Is there something you’ve always wanted to do but you were tied into your 9-5 job? Have fun in this phase. Is there a business you wanted to start but were always afraid to take the chance? Well this is a great time to pursue something different. Besides, what can you lose?

Create A Strategy

Ok, now that you spent some time brainstorming it’s time to start building on one or two of your ideas and start defining your strategy. In this phase you’re breaking down your long-term goals into large, definitive and realistic accomplishments or milestones that lead to you attaining your goal. For example, perhaps your goal is to add income streams so you’re less dependent on one company paying your salary so you can support yourself and your family. There are many different strategies you can implement, just make sure you choose the strategy that best fits your interests, skill set and risk tolerance. The great news is there’s no one “right strategy”. The bad news is there’s no “right strategy” so make sure you are self aware and don’t just follow someone else because they say it’s great! It may be great for them but terrible for you. For example, if you choose to go down the rental property path start defining how you will use them to attain your goal. How many rental properties do you want? What type of property? (e.g. Condo or Single Family House). Will you manage them yourself or use a management company? How will you acquire the properties? (e.g cash or finance). Which areas do you prefer? What’s your long-term exit strategy?

Create A Plan

A strategy is great but you’ll need a plan to execute your strategy. This is where you start mapping out much smaller, specific tasks that when implemented will lead you to accomplish the first leg of your strategy. This is the tactical phase so you need to get very specific and intentional. The tasks should be sequenced, extremely detailed and well thought out. Don’t worry, you can adjust your plan as you go but it’s important to have a written plan or you might find yourself stuck at some point. Back to the rental property example for a moment. Perhaps your plan is to refinance your primary residence, pull some of the equity out and use the cash you received from your primary residence to purchase some rental properties. Your plan should specify how much equity you will pull out, what interest rate you think you can get, what your new monthly payment will be and how many rental properties you will purchase.

Take Action

Although everything above seems very involved this will be the hardest part for many people. I have personally seen too many people have great goals and strategies and maybe even get into the planning stage but never take the first step. I believe most of them were being genuine and truly wanted to implement the plan but for one reason or another they never put their plan into action. There can be many reasons for this but I think a main thing that holds many back is fear of the unknown. This is completely understandable and natural. When you aren’t sure what is the “right” first step to take the natural thing to do is to take no action at all. What I find works best when this happens to me is I just do “something”. It almost doesn’t matter what the first step is. Just take that step. Even if it’s the “wrong” step it will get you moving. From there you’ll figure out where to go next and you’'ll learn along the way.

Think about it this way. What if you were walking along a path through the woods and came to a fork in the path. You can either go left or right but you have no idea which is the “best” path. Would you stand there forever until you knew for sure which was the best path or would you choose one and see what happens? If it turns out to be a dead end, fine. Turn around and take the other path. That’s exactly what you need to do when venturing into new territory that could improve your life.

Take that first step! Try, Learn, Adjust, Replan and Keep Moving.