This is a great post about believing what you want to believe, creating your own success and not being influenced by hype and other’s woe is me attitudes. Please leave your comments as I would love to know how you are getting on with it!

ESSAY: Unexpected Recession Benefit: A Happier, More Balanced World

Here’s what I see happening, now that our ‘official’ global economic downturn is creeping towards the six month mark: More kindness, less waste, less consumerism, a sudden, tender vulnerability in the population. (No better bonder than discomfort, eh?) And some shifts that will ultimately move many back towards what they always wanted to do ‘when they grow up’.

The New York Times recently ran a story (“What’s Your New Plan B?”) about how the dream job in retirement used to be the Vermont B&B, or leading tours as a fly fishing guide. Well, all that has changed now as we rethink the old Plan B. The article cites people who ‘see the writing on the wall’ and have started to segue into work that they actually prefer.” That would include a lawyer who runs a florist business out of his apartment at night, and a derivatives products controller at a Wall Street firm who also sells furniture out of her basement in New Jersey. There is even an ex-securities trader who now runs an ‘Aussie Pet Mobile’ franchise – and started a freelance consultancy to continue working with former clients.

I see this as proof. The push towards a more creative, genuinely useful livelihood is on!

A similar NPR piece (“Giving Foreclosed Homes a Lived In Look”) describes a boom business that just sprang up called Designer Home Tenders. The enterprising owner finds homes that banks have foreclosed on, and fixes them up and re-rents them at low cost to others who have lost their homes. So the abandoned homes are no longer prey to homeless squatters and vandals, AND those who are suddenly out of a home can rent for ‘studio apartment prices’.

So what’s going on here? We, as a society, are being pushed to connect on deeper and deeper levels with each other … without the stuff … without the jobs … without the trappings of prestige or status … but just as good old people helping people. And we are being called forth to suddenly get very creative about how we run our day-to-day business, how we earn a living, how we interact with each other.

Which, if we pay attention, can ultimately have a whole lot to do with living our life purpose.

Waste is out. Entrepreneurship is in. Green is hot. Simplicity has returned. And most importantly, now is the ripest time imaginable for those who encourage people to live bigger, dare to risk, hold their heads high, and move forth.

In other words, if you’re a coach, a holistic body worker, an intuitive, a green consultant, or any kind of small business owner who actively assists people to self-actualize or make any kind of contribution, your golden hour has arrived. Just about every last one of my clients has created a business that fits neatly into this plan. And I see the spin the world is taking as enduring for a good long while as they establish those businesses powerfully.

I believe, as a nation and even as a planet, we are suddenly AWAKE to all the infinite possibilities the world has to offer us. Even internationally, we are now blessed with a government that reaches out even to formerly disenfranchised groups branded as ‘enemies’, and believes in listening and dialoguing first to solve problems. Our new credo: when the going gets tough, we all need each other.

This is why I am now actively crafting an event I will most likely lead in June that helps people get in touch with what their healing work is, precisely. Or it may be about how the work they currently do needs to be bumped up to the next level – so they can live the bigger dream, help more people, be more authentic.

I believe we are in the midst of a massive energy shift (shamans and intuitives I check in with back me up here.) Not long ago, on Valentines Day, the astrologically inclined will tell you that the Moon was in the 7th House and Jupiter aligned with Mars. And if this sounds like the opening lyrics to a big hit from the musical Hair, well, yeah, we are entering a time of Universal love – The Age of Aquarius.

Wild huh? Even my dear husband, Larry Barns, an outdoor guy who lives to fish and shoot pictures and regards the computer only as a necessary evil – even HE is starting a website to share his inspirational images. Just because it’s really time to come together and share the love.

I say if hubby can do it, so can all of us. Here’s to nursing that dream of yours … go forth and share!

Suzanne Falter-Barns is a best selling self-help author, former New York City journalist and marketing consultant who helps coaches package their businesses for maximum credibility and platform. Using her techniques, her clients have been able to attract calls from venues like People Magazine, USA Today, 60 Minutes, Time Magazine, and Ladies Home Journal, as well as major publishers, agents and powerful joint venture partners. (You can see real specifics at http://getknownnow.com/success_stories.html )

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