You may well have heard me on talk radio – I am regularly interviewed on personal development and self improvement. Last week, I fired off a couple of emails to radio hosts so that I could talk to listeners about getting more out of life even during these trying times. One guy came back to me with the following response “come on, man, get real”. That’s all he said.

No, you get real! There are too many downbeat people with an attitude that adds fuel to the wildfire of economic turmoil and individual self-doubt. Herd-like minds got the world into its current mess (let’s all get greedy together) the herd mentality will keep it there (let’s all get needy together). You’ve got to wake the hell up – because, if you don’t that’s where you are – in Hell, a hell of your own making. And there’s simply so much of it going on at the moment.

And, if you’re one of those so-called normal people who take perverse pleasure in talking about how bad things are, shut up! If, like somebody that I was talking to recently, you’re too self-conscious to tell your friends that you can still afford to take your winter ski break, you need to ask yourself “what’s that all about?” If you’re really hurting because you’ve lost your job, stop playing the victim. Rather than cowering down under the weight of mass hysteria, take a step away from the herd, open your eyes and you’ll find that opportunities are all around you, the only reason you can’t see them is that you’ve bought into the negative nonsense that is dragging everybody down. Stop going along with everybody else that there are no opportunities, get up off your ass and get real – really and truly!

And a few words my friend who told me that I should get real – get a life and stop dragging everyone else down to your level! It’s about time we stopped this mass-madness – it’s time to start pulling ourselves together and start living life to the full.