If you don't let fear paralyze you, then you'll be available to see how the changes happening right now can actually benefit your career. If you are morbidly watching the stock market thinking about joining a soup line, you'll miss these same opportunities.

There are two types of problems at work: the kind you can control and the kind you are powerless to prevent. If our global economic system collapses, then the only people who will be prepared are the people who have been living on compounds waiting for the End of Times. However, the more likely scenario is we will go through a reality check, learn from our mistakes, and have a chance to rebuild our finances on a wiser foundation.

My hope is that we respond by becoming more willing to face reality, less liable to be seduced by our fantasies, and more interested in what is than in what should be. If so, history may record 2008 not as the Great Depression but as the Great Awakening.

The last word(s)

Q. My coworkers tell me I'm defensive. Don't you need to explain your point of view?

A. Yes, but only when people are listening -- and no one listens when you are defending yourself.