How do you stay resilient in hard times?
I’ve had to do a lot of this lately.
On September 19, I was told that the my job had been impacted by the company reorg. To add insult to injury, that wasn’t to be my last day. I had to work an additional two weeks.
But I could take the rest of the day off to gather my thoughts.
Gee – thanks.
I spent the rest of the day going through my finances, creating a budget and figuring out how to tell my hubs when he got home.
In any case, this last month has been an exercise in nothing but resilience. We have worked through some tough issues. We had to let our cleaning lady and lawn service go. We dropped our subscriptions to Alaskan Seafood and Good Chop. We cut coupons, look for sales and look for cheaper ways to entertain ourselves. This morning we are going to hit the matinee to see the new Godzilla movie.
The one thing that is keeping me afloat most, though, is our vintage book business. Hubs and I started it last year on Etsy. It was never meant to be anything more than a hobby, but now with my extra time (which actually isn’t much because looking for work is almost a full time job, too) I have been stepping it up.
I got the eComm part of our own website running so that someday we won’t have to rely on Etsy for visibility. I have taken some deep dives into Semrush to track our SEO efforts. I started a blog and just starting to dip my toe into some paid media advertising.
In the last month I realized that my resilience is tied more to a sense of purpose than anything else. Honestly, I felt very little purpose in my last job. It was fulfilling a few years ago, but things changed. It was becoming a grind, and sucking the soul out of me. It was so slow and insidious, I didn’t realize it was happening until it was too late.
In any case, the bookstore has been my salvation. I don’t suggest that everyone start a business, but if you do find yourself in tough times, my advice is to focus on something meaningful. Volunteer, plant a garden, learn something new, visit a friend. I know sometimes it is hard to get started, but more often that not, when you push through, you’ll be glad you did.
If you’d like to visit my humble vintage bookstore, please feel free to visit our Etsy store for the full inventory. We also have our own website, Mr. Curio’s Vintage Books, where you can read our blog and learn more about old books and the far out tales of Mr. and Mrs. Curio.
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