Innovative Downsizing as a New Paradigm
ByDownsizing is not a very optimistic word, but it is a global reality. Whether you call it austerity or downsizing or deleveraging, the actions and affects are the same.
Strangely, in this era it is not just a reality for people who are receiving less income.
It started with the world’s largest corporations. Those that were able to intelligently cut staff by determining which people would not affect the innovation or creative capabilities of the organization have remained innovative.
Those that just cut indiscriminately to reduce over head have been shown by studies to have lost leadership.
Governments are faced with downsizing. Are they doing it intelligently or they going to ruin their competitive advantage for generations? Noteworthy is Britain’s austerity program that is eliminating the financing for scholarships that has been the primary source for citizens to attend their excellent universities. Now only the rich will get the best educations.
The austerity program gripping Ireland is having the same affect that austerity has had on many corporations. It demoralizes the masses. As the I.M.F.and ECU start dictating terms that could last for decades, the people realize they have in a sense lost sovereignty.
Without pointing the finger of blame, the world has spent its way to this situation. It has spent money it didn’t have enabled by fiat currencies and financing. A fiat currency means there is nothing backing the money but faith.
Financing means you can leverage the money to purchase something that is five to 1,000 times more expensive than the money you have in your hand. Debt backed securities were leveraging to infinity the financing of purchases made with fiat currencies.
Deleveraging, austerity, and downsizing are the same. The world was living on trillions of dollars it didn’t really have. It was like one cow being sold to 1,000 people hoping no one would actually want it.
Now as the world deleverages, the secret for continued optimism will be how we handle the psychological, financial, and recovery phases of rebuilding on a more solid foundation.
Because the income and assets we had were not backed by solid value, we will slowly settle to a more realistic level. This is not to say that in this process some will become more affluent. But statistics show that the super wealthy for a number of reasons are decreasing from 10% of the population to 1%.
Because this may be a long process, it is important we try to preserve human dignity and morale in the process. It is time to take a new accounting of who we are and what we can still accomplish.
Rebuilding our wealth may not be the most likely outcome. Therefore we had better find ways to enjoy our lives with lesser means. This is the psychological aspect that most people will find difficult.
We will have to find the value of human life in different scenarios. We will have to learn how to entertain ourselves with less spending. This usually means we can turn to exercise, hobbies, writing, reading, connecting with nature, and conversation.
If this sounds horrible to you, start contemplating the opportunities to slow down and release a lot of tension created by too much stimulus. If you slow down to a point where you can spend more time with yourself and even get into meditating, you will discover a new world, albeit different.
The financial reality will be that we will do with less. We will have to learn how to purchase and surround ourselves with things we actually need. If those purchases are items that could help us grow and explore areas we have not discovered so far, we can be more excited about the prospects.
Finally, we have to learn how to adapt to the new reality in the long settlement and then recovery period. Business will need to be innovative. It will survive in the transition as consumerism changes. Developing the ability to accept the change, institute our own positive program for coping, and creating thinking and innovation skills that can be applied in the new paradigm will help us come out on the other side.
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Start with your own positive program for developing health, fitness, discipline and inspiration. These are great characteristics that can lead to more courage, acceptance of risk and passion for new growth.
Healthy, Lean and Happy Forever
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