Dear Neighbor,
How to Get Out of a Funk: consider this a kind of self-help program for me—and maybe for you, if you happen to be at that place yourself. The past year (and possibly the year ahead) seems to have left many exhausted and in a funk. I usually consider myself very good at doing this defunking process, as there have been many times in my life when there was really only me to coach myself out of that funky time. Early in our business career when we were such babes in the woods and growing too fast with no idea of how to manage our financial needs to grow a biz we started with zero capital, I remember my husband/partner and I being of particularly low spirits and deciding the thing to do was to rent a canoe and go paddling along the Rancocas River in Pemberton, New Jersey. We were both in a very blue funk. I still remember the summer cabins along the water and the almost black-red color of the water from the cedar trees. As we paddled, trying to forget our fears and worries, I remember being afraid to ask Bob what shape we were in. It was he who handled moving the money where it needed to be in order to buy our next load of inventory, much of which had already been sold. And I remember his answer: “I need $5,000 by noon today to cover checks I’ve already written.” Gulp. We had very little knowledge about what we were doing, but we knew we had a tiger by the tail and somehow needed to keep hold of that tail.
We found the money, at ten percent interest, from a kind friend who believed in us, which we sometimes turned over three times a week to keep our business growing. I will never forget that day, finding a way to keep calm and carry on as we dipped our paddles into that black-red water, practicing something we didn’t know the words for then: mindfulness and purposefully bringing beauty and calm into that frenetic time.
When the Great Recession happened, I was reading a daybook called Simple Abundance. Thank goodness I was, because her prescription saved me. It was a time when we saw ten years of work almost disappear in a period of two weeks. The author’s prescription was to begin a gratitude journal and write down, every day, five things for which I was grateful. There were some slim pickings many days, but doing so helped me keep my mental and emotional equilibrium.
Since it is the New Year, I will also address the subject of New Year’s Resolutions. If you simply consider them goals to move toward, and somehow you get further along than you were if you hadn’t committed them to writing, you’re ahead of the game and the curve! Only three percent of all the people in the world ever put their goals in writing, so taking some time to think about what you want to achieve and enjoy and experience and get the benefit of in the year ahead can be a very empowering act. Truth: I haven’t done mine yet, but it really doesn’t matter if you and I didn’t do it on New Year’s Eve. It’s just a good time to focus on where you’re going, what you need to add and subtract, and get a vision of your path ahead. Wishing you a great 2025 filled with serendipities and achieved goals and dreams!
Your neighbor,
Anne Pounds
How to Get Out of a Funk: consider this a kind of self-help program for me—and maybe for you, if you happen to be at that place yourself. The past year (and possibly the year ahead) seems to have left many exhausted and in a funk. I usually consider myself very good at doing this defunking process, as there have been many times in my life when there was really only me to coach myself out of that funky time. Early in our business career when we were such babes in the woods and growing too fast with no idea of how to manage our financial needs to grow a biz we started with zero capital, I remember my husband/partner and I being of particularly low spirits and deciding the thing to do was to rent a canoe and go paddling along the Rancocas River in Pemberton, New Jersey. We were both in a very blue funk. I still remember the summer cabins along the water and the almost black-red color of the water from the cedar trees. As we paddled, trying to forget our fears and worries, I remember being afraid to ask Bob what shape we were in. It was he who handled moving the money where it needed to be in order to buy our next load of inventory, much of which had already been sold. And I remember his answer: “I need $5,000 by noon today to cover checks I’ve already written.” Gulp. We had very little knowledge about what we were doing, but we knew we had a tiger by the tail and somehow needed to keep hold of that tail.
We found the money, at ten percent interest, from a kind friend who believed in us, which we sometimes turned over three times a week to keep our business growing. I will never forget that day, finding a way to keep calm and carry on as we dipped our paddles into that black-red water, practicing something we didn’t know the words for then: mindfulness and purposefully bringing beauty and calm into that frenetic time.
When the Great Recession happened, I was reading a daybook called Simple Abundance. Thank goodness I was, because her prescription saved me. It was a time when we saw ten years of work almost disappear in a period of two weeks. The author’s prescription was to begin a gratitude journal and write down, every day, five things for which I was grateful. There were some slim pickings many days, but doing so helped me keep my mental and emotional equilibrium.
Since it is the New Year, I will also address the subject of New Year’s Resolutions. If you simply consider them goals to move toward, and somehow you get further along than you were if you hadn’t committed them to writing, you’re ahead of the game and the curve! Only three percent of all the people in the world ever put their goals in writing, so taking some time to think about what you want to achieve and enjoy and experience and get the benefit of in the year ahead can be a very empowering act. Truth: I haven’t done mine yet, but it really doesn’t matter if you and I didn’t do it on New Year’s Eve. It’s just a good time to focus on where you’re going, what you need to add and subtract, and get a vision of your path ahead. Wishing you a great 2025 filled with serendipities and achieved goals and dreams!
Your neighbor,
Anne Pounds
