We rail against Wall Street and the government.  Blame is raging.  How could this have happened in our day and age? Well it did happen, it is what it is and now we must accept what is and take the necessary steps to move forward. More important, what lessons and deep wisdom can we extract from our present reality that will help us to grow and evolve as human beings?  What do we need to learn so that we do not allow this to happen again?  What are the gifts of this experience?

Here are some insights that I have personally gathered:

1.    The signs were there all along.  We simply chose not to see them or we chose denial. We may not have been able to imagine just how bad things have become but we certainly saw the warning signs. From insanely inflated real estate prices to an overblown stock market to over-spending on our own parts, the signs were there.
2.    We gave up responsibility for our own lives. I can see how I personally absolved myself of personal responsibility in my own investments by leaving it all to the so-called experts.  Ultimately, we and we alone are responsible for our lives.
3.    We get to choose what is really important in life.  We need to determine what our core values are and live them everyday.  So the kids don’t get as many presents this year.  It is time tor return to the values that hold real meaning in our lives: responsibility, acceptance, giving back, common sense, frugality…you know what I mean!
4.    We need to become more creative.  Insanity is doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results! The government is going to need to do things very differently now because what they had been doing didn’t work. Same for Wall Street, same for us individually.
5.    Greed is destructive.  Unbridled greed on everyone’s part is an element of what got us here.  Back to the basics of right and wrong.
6.    We went unconscious. What were we thinking?  How could we have not seen what was happening?  We went unconscious.   We need to remain aware at all times of what is going on around us.  Only when we are aware, can we make real choices on how to best handle life.
7.    It is a time to pull together. We are all in this together.  Collective responsibility will be the road to positive change.  Obama talks about change we can believe in…be that change.
8.    Wall Street’s use of leverage brought down the markets…so too did our own personal use of leverage.  We need to return to the theory of the gold standard where a dollar has the backing of a certain amount of gold.  We spend what we have and do not leverage ourselves to the hilt.
9.     We need to learn to accept what is and then move forward.  What is is the mess we find ourselves in. Until we let go of should be’s and could be’s we will not be able to create the changes we so desperately need.
10.     We need an attitude adjustment, a new perspective.  Perhaps if we can look at this as the crisis we needed to make the changes that we have needed for so very long, then we can move forward with a positive and empowering perspective that this is all for the good.
11.    We need to let go of what we cannot control: most everything in the external world. We need to determine what we can control in life: ourselves and how we choose to handle what life throws our way.

Your thoughts?

Second lesson: take responsibility. The blame game is being played full out right now.  Blaming someone else for how we feel or what has happened makes us powerless as we are transferring our personal responsibility for our lives to the person or institution we blame.  Blaming someone else means we cannot make changes or improve the situation.  Look back and claim responsibility. For example, I invested in the market knowing full well that it was a risk and that there was rampant greed on the Street.  I could have  assessed the risks in a more productive fashion. I could have taken the time to track the stocks myself instead of leaving it to my broker.  I could have see the writing on the wall. Now is the time to ensure that we do not repeat these mistakes, that we will learn the lessons and take full responsibility for our lives.

How about understanding the basic nature of life and that is: s–t happens.  To have an expectation that everything will go according to your plan is close to insane.  The universe does not work that way.  Expectations that things will go our way are premeditated disappointments and resentments.  That’s life and we need to accept that fact.

Clean up you mess. The government needs to clean up their mess, Wall Street need to do the same and so do we.  That done, we all need to ensure that we make conscious choices about how we want to invest our money in the future.

How about the issue of control?  Exactly where do we have control and where do we not?  We cannot control the outer world. We cannot control what others choose to do.  Learning the difference between where we have control and where we don’t will lead to a much more centered and content existence.  Trying to control life is like swimming against the current…you get nowhere except highly frustrated, tired, angry and resentful.  We can only control ourselves and how we choose to handle what life throws out way.

There are undoubtedly many more lessons to be gleaned from the crisis on Wall Street and I challenge you to find them so that you not only don’t repeat them but so that you evolve into a wiser human being.