At the request of many of my readers, on the anniversary of the crash of 2008, I am reposting a blog from that period. The truisms remain the same and the charge to each of us – unaltered.We are writing our new chapter – right now. How are we doing? I hope you will weigh in and share your thoughts.

There is such a prevalence of negative messages in today’s world. The media is chock full of ‘if it bleeds it leads’ coverage…and in some ways we have become conditioned to not only expect the icky news, we feed on it. This morbid expectation and, at best, the placid tolerance of negativity has the potential to leak into every aspect of our lives.

Nothing like disruption to get the stories going! And when the uproar is about the newspaper business, we get more than the usual number of critics thinking and writing about what it all means. So when Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post, using his personal fortune from founding Amazon, the stories were flying like Angry Birds.

Recently I was at a dinner which turned into a one-up discussion on steroids. We have all been at one of these gatherings where folks are comparing and competing for the best “fish story” of the evening. What was amazing to me was this: they were not trumping each other with positive achievements or the “outdoing of the Joneses” – they were trolling on about their lamentations, ills, and 12-miles-in-the-snow-with-no-shoes stories. What is up with this trend?

This past week I was back in my hometown celebrating my father’s (and his identical twin’s) 85th birthday. As I was walking through my childhood neighborhood one morning, I needed to cross the street to avoid the sprinklers. I had not walked on the other side of the street in probably 20+ years!

Those of you who follow my posts know that the first half of this year has been humbling relative to those who have been riffed, downsized, or have simply made the decision that where they were is not where they want to be. Folks are waking up to their new reality: could this be the ‘control, alt, delete’ moment in my career?

Recently I stumbled across a book with which I was impressed and intrigued by their approach to solving problems and establishing creative solutions! Many of my clients are wrestling with the same old issues and in many cases are approaching their resolution in the same old way. This book challenges us and encourages us to get out of our rut and look at things differently – all from “inside the box.”

Recently, I have been working with a number of executives who are being put through their paces to explain, persuade, and justify their approach to their Board and to other senior constituents. Needless to say, many grow frustrated. What is one question which can help to ‘cut the fat’ from those conversations?

This past week was unprecedented for me. I had 4 – four – individuals, in 1 week, tell me they had been ‘riffed’ from their current roles.These individuals have had strong careers and are worthy, capable contributors. However, now they are faced with (what they perceive as) a tremendous setback at a stage in their life where most – if not all – thought they would be somewhere else. What gives?!

It is hard to believe it is July already and we are half way through 2013! Many of my clients have lamented they are not where they wanted to be at this point in the year. Yet, one thing I know for sure – if we stop pursuing whatever goal we aspire to achieve, we are guaranteed not to achieve it! So, what can we do to get our ‘mojo’ back?