Coping with economic downturn ~ Hypnotes July 2009

A few days ago I was reminiscing with a few friends about an experience I had in the early 1980s, and it was something that changed my life. In those days I was a young chap who was concerned for my job as the economic downturn was closing factories and organisations.

In those days I was in an office and 12 months earlier had been given the job of doing some bookkeeping work since the book-keeper had gone off sick. He was a way several months; he had the type of personality that was widely acknowledged as not being the most understanding of people. I was concerned that I did a good job, the books were important, some however more important than others.

I was told that every calculation had to be recorded and kept. Then once the calculations had been made it had to be entered into the ledgers. I lost hours of sleep; I worried and lost weight, and smoked more than ever, (something I no longer do!) it was so important to get it right.

To cut a long story short the bookkeeper finally returned, the books were fine, despite his grudging acceptance that a young chap had been able to do his job. Then twelve months later the recession hit, jobs were being cut and mine was one of them. Being one of the last few to go, I was given the job to shred whatever I was given, whatever was deemed to be unimportant.

And in the mounds of papers due for shredding, I found the calculation sheets that just 12 months earlier were deemed to be so important, and yet there I was in the process of shredding them! All that worry, all those sleepless nights and there I was shredding the lot. Initially it annoyed me; the cost to me personally seemed high at the time. However the annoyance passed and I enjoyed shredding them. And for me that was a massively important lesson.

I learned how things can change so quickly. I knew doing a good job was important, but learned not for it to be done to the detriment of myself or family. And to this day I teach others to understand that there are very few jobs, worth the surrender of our personal health, in either mind or body. In fact I can’t think of a one, for sooner or later that massively important job, the one that must be done to the deadline will inevitably prove to be less important that it actually appeared to be, and the urgency will pass.

But not always will the emotional or physical cost be as easy to recover from. When the damage is done, it gets more and more difficult to recover from. So I learned a very important lesson, and I have tried to teach it to anyone who will listen. It is much better to learn how to mitigate the effects of destructive routines and work patterns when you still have your health, than it is to change when you are battling poor health too.

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