What happens next?

I think Anthony Robbins once said that "your history doesn't have to be your biography". I take this to mean that just because certain things have happened previously, it does not mean that those things have to be what decides how your own personal legacy is formed. At a time of unprecedented hardships economically for people in this country, it would be all to easy and indeed probably understandable if as a society we blamed any future inaction on these circumstances that have come together to make everyday life so difficult. But the fact is that these things have happened and the reality is that complaining about what has happened will not change them.

Despite everything there is an opportunity now for local people to recreate the society as opposed to the economy that we all deserve. Not everyone is an entrepreneur at heart and many people face daily difficulties that will prevent them from being the economic drivers of any future success, but this does not mean that people cannot contribute in a manner that does not need to be economic or indeed entrepreneurial. People have perhaps now more than ever that gift that seemed to be in such scare supply until recently.....TIME.

Time to reconnect with family, friends and neighbours. Time to give to local charities and clubs. Time to make their locality a pleasant place to live once again. What is available now is that greatest resource, people. People who can make a difference to the lives of those around them so that when the economic crisis ends, and it will end because it always does, it will be infinitely easier to carry on the good work when the hard groundwork is already done. Nothing exists in a vacuum. Of course we all need money to survive, and that is definitely scarcer than it was, but it is not the be all and end all. There are other achievable goals for us all that don't cost money, just time.

If we agree that there is a fundamental difference between "surviving" and "living" then the gap between seeing our town and country as a society and not merely an economy isn't that large a gap to bridge. We all need each other and all of us are capable of coming up with ideas that can make "living" more enjoyable for us all.

We can stew in what we have or we can create something that is uniquely ours.

What do you think?