Get out of bed and try to improve yourself each and every day. It won’t be easy. There will be ... [+]
It's summertime and you may want to relax, take it easy on the beach and mentally check out from work. Unfortunately, this is not the right time to power down.
You need to take active, thoughtful control over your career or risk falling behind. With inflation over 9%, your paycheck and savings are devalued. It's like a tax that never goes away. You don’t want to end up like the senior citizens who dutifully saved, put their money in the bank, earned less than 1% interest rates and helplessly watched their humble nest eggs erode by 9.1% inflation. Every day, they fall further behind.
Whether you like it or not, you need to do something. You must figure out how to make yourself more valuable and earn more money. Unless you have an unlimited trust fund, there is a pressing need to ensure that you can, at the very least, keep up with inflation and all the rising costs.
It’s time to start learning new in-demand skills. Take a course in coding. Find a second job. Fight for a promotion and raise at work. Job craft your role to enable future upside potential. If you’re going nowhere at your firm, find a few top recruiters and start interviewing for a new opportunity that pays well and offers a fast track to advance within the organization. Start a side-hustle business or invest in the securities markets.
Inflation Is Changing The Game
Here’s the rationale for changing the way you look at your job and career. Nothing goes up forever. All the trillions of dollars of money printed and stimulus checks flushed into the economy created rampant inflation.
Seemingly overnight, the game changed. Federal Reserve Bank chair Jerome Powell called for raising interest rates to whip inflation. Powell’s edict was to crush the economy to weaken demand which would burst the inflation bubble. The problem is that to accomplish this goal, businesses will need to cut costs.
The United States is in a new era and the days of reckoning are here. After the economy reopened, Americans witnessed about a year of exuberance, in which jobs were plentiful and stocks, cryptocurrencies and real estate skyrocketed in value. Billion-dollar unicorn startups were minted on a routine basis. The wealth of the rich substantially grew unimaginably higher. This period is now over.
There won’t be much mercy. Powell’s new quantitative tightening program will result in significant layoffs and hiring freezes. The contracting economy has already caused stocks, cryptocurrencies and the value of homes to decline in value.
This time, it's different. You need to be in survival mode. To succeed, you have to be aggressive and take bold actions. This mindset differs from the agro, pre-pandemic “hustle porn” culture you saw on social media.
People would brag about their grueling schedules. They’d admonish others to follow their example of waking up before 5:00 a.m., taking a cold shower, hitting the gym and consuming the “right kind” of food. They’re in the office early, work late and crush it on the weekends.
There Was A Different Mindset During The Pandemic
During the pandemic and after the economy reopened, there was a seismic vibe shift in how people thought about their work and lives. Seeing firsthand how suddenly people could fall ill and die served as a sobering wake-up call. It made people confront their own mortality.
Millions of Americans decided they did not want to continue working the way they did before the virus outbreak. They felt liberated to quit their jobs to pursue better-paying opportunities. It was also important to find a job that offered purpose and meaning.
Workers and business leaders started paying attention to mental health, emotional well-being and burnout. Employees pushed to continue working remotely, as they felt it offered autonomy and a more well-balanced life.
Don’t Worry About Setbacks, Keep Moving Forward
This can be frustrating to read. After two years of a pandemic, you’re now facing inflation, a recession, possible stagflation, potential conflicts with Russia and China and political unrest. It makes you feel like just pulling the covers over your head and staying in bed.
You need to do the opposite. Get out of bed and try to improve yourself each and every day. It won’t be easy. There will be roadblocks and dead ends. Keep pushing forward in the face of adversity.
Think of how your future self will appreciate everything you did in the past to make a better life for you and your family. Defer current gratifications, such as binge-watching vacuous Netflix shows, and put in the hours needed to succeed.
