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They have said millennials are the first generation ever to experience two global economic crises that will put them on a path to end up financially worse than their parents.

The Great Recession happened as they were graduating from college with the country’s highest unemployment rate in 80 years.

Now, as they’ve finally gotten jobs and begun to create some stability, they should be buying homes and stimulating the economy that way. Instead, we’re at the start of one of the worst economic crises the world has ever seen. 

During the Great Recession, I was in my early 30s. I had no business running a business nor managing a team of professionals. I was incredibly naive and a bit ignorant, too.

While I certainly had paid attention to what the economists were saying, I had NO IDEA how it would hit my business nor what it meant for the people I worked with.

Today, I’m a bit, um, wiser.

Not so naive to how this can (and will) damage my business. Not so ignorant to what it’ll do to my team.

I have all sorts of contingency plans in place—if this happens, I’ll do this. If this happens, I’ll do that. And if this happens, well…maybe I’ll start an online bakery or write that novel I’ve always talked about writing.

I’ve planned for the worst and now I’m hoping for the best.

Which is really all we can do. Plan for the worst. Hope for the best.

10 Mindset Shifts to Make During a Crisis

During the aforementioned Great Recession, Dan Sullivan, the founder of Strategic Coach, published an article titled, “The Scary Times Success Manual.”

At the time, he proposed 10 mindset shifts, which I think are as relevant in this moment as they were 10 years ago.

1. Forget about yourself. Focus on others.
2. Forget about your commodity. Focus on your relationships.
3. Forget about the sale. Focus on creating value.
4. Forget about your losses. Focus on your opportunities.
5. Forget about your difficulties. Focus on your progress.
6. Forget about the “future”. Focus on your today.
7. Forget about who you were. Focus on who you can be.
8. Forget about events. Focus on your responses.
9. Forget about what’s missing. Focus on what’s available.
10. Forget about your complaints. Focus on your gratitude.

In today’s podcast episode, we cover the first five mindset shifts, as they relate to communicators.

The last five will be covered on Spin Sucks (albeit in written, not audio form) tomorrow.

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About Gini Dietrich

Gini Dietrich is the founder and CEO of Arment Dietrich, a Chicago-based integrated marketing communications firm. She is the lead blogger at Spin Sucks and is the founder of Spin Sucks Pro. She is the co-author of Marketing in the Round and co-host of Inside PR. Full bio