These are uncertain and confusing times. Everywhere you look, any conversation you listen to, it is about the economy and its impact on our lives. We hear about deficit, raising taxes, unemployment and lack of liquidity. It is enough to make everyone enter a negative emotional spiral.

How can you deal with these uncertain times?

1. Manage Your Emotional Risk 

• Limit your input – Be conscious of how much time you spend talking / listening to others about the negative impact that these markets are having on our lives.It reminds me of a quote that I heard: “Worrying does not empty tomorrow of its troubles, it empties today of its strength.”

• Separate your results from who you are – Yes, I realize the majority of us define ourselves by what we do and how much money we make. This is the time to rethink that.

• Reduce your stress – This allows you to be more creative and enables you to plan rather than react.

It is crucial to manage your emotional risk, and yet it is challenging. What are some ways that you can manage it?

Napoleon Hill says: “If you don’t control what you think, you can’t control what you do. “

1. Manage Your Expectations

Be realistic with the goals that you are setting for yourself. When you have unrealistic expectations, you set yourself up for real pain…

Remember, tough times don’t last forever. To thrive in these situations, you need to be resilient, strong and flexible.Roger Crawford says: “Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional.”

1. Recalibrate Your Skills and Strategies

This is the time to think about how you can reposition yourself to make it in these markets.Look at your strategies objectively and see if they still apply. Don’t be attached to how things were. These times are like nothing we have experienced in our lives.

If the old strategies don’t work, come up with new ones and see if you need to develop new skills so you can apply them to the new strategies.This is the time that you need to think and act differently.

Napoleon Hill says: “The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail.”

1. Give Yourself an Emotional Stimulus Package

This is very important. It is about coming from a place of gratitude. Yes, I know when we are hearing all about doom and gloom, it is challenging to be grateful.

Ask yourself, how can I find more meaning in my life?

My challenge to you is to find at least 3 things that you are grateful for. It can be as simple as, you have your family, your health and people who care about you.

William Arthur Ward has a quote: “The pessimist borrows trouble; the optimist lends encouragement.”

To summarize, the 4 steps we can take to succeed in the current market conditions are:

1. Manage Your Emotional Risk
2. Manage Your Expectations
3. Recalibrate Your Skills and Strategies
4. Give Yourself an Emotional Stimulus Package

There is a quote by Yoda that says: “Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose. . . The fear of loss is a path to the Dark Side.”