When Catastrophe Hits You

Sometimes we just have to take the bad with the good. The reality is that nothing is so bad that it can’t be good for something. If we can only wrap our heads around and see the misfortune—whatever it might be—in the right perspective.

I know, it’s easy to get discouraged when bad things happen to us. Right in the middle of it all, it’s hard to encourage positive thoughts. But however hard it is, if we can slowly drag ourselves out of the miserable feeling, we stand to win more than we might have lost.

I am in such a place right now. The last couple of weeks have been hard. My work has been slowing down more than I like to admit. The reality is, I have hardly gotten any new assignments over last the fortnight or so. What more is, I believe I won’t get more work for the rest of December.

Of course, it has to do with the industry I am working in. As you probably know, the media businesses have been struggling for years already. The disruption of the digital era has come down hard on the media, as it has for instance on the music industry as well as other branches. For most media companies it’s been hard to make a profit these days and keep a sustainable business, and for one who delivers to those businesses, of course I would have to expect to get hurt, too.

So far, I have managed fairly well, though. Yes, it’s been harder to get assignment at times, but I have just pushed harder, and gotten what I needed to survive. Now in the end of November, it seems to have come to a standstill, though.

I don’t expect it to stay like this forever. As a matter of fact, I believe I will be in full business come January as all the companies I am working for will start on a new budget year. However, the present standstill has gotten me thinking. I need to diversify and I need to find more legs to stand on. What happens now have giving me an opportunity to reflect on my own situation.

It’s by far a new thought for me. For years, I have been thinking about other areas I can expand into. The problem is finding time to develop new business areas, when you are so busy with the work you already have. I have—slowly and discontinuously—done various attempts but nothing that is ready to take over the loss of business during this time of standstill.

But alas. Suddenly I do have time. Moreover, that’s what I am going to do the rest of this month. Start working on my new ideas and develop those business areas. My hope is I will get far enough to be able to put them into action already in the beginning of next year. It was about time I got going. I knew I was playing with fire when I year after year postponed getting into new areas. Time to expand and find myself again. I hope…

I will end with a quote by Becca Fitzpatrick, an American author, best known for having written the New York Times bestseller, Hush, Hush: «Sometimes bad things have to happen before good things can.».

Facts about the photo: The photo was taken with a Canon Eos 5D with a 24-104 mm lens and the zoom set at 105 mm. Shutter speed: 1/30 of a second. Aperture: f/4.0. The photo was processed in Lightroom and Photoshop.