As you probably know unless this is your first time here, I’ve just come back from a week’s vacation in the frozen wasteland that is the UK. It was an interesting jaunt back home, one that even the most dedicated and committed sado-masochist would have struggled to rank much higher up the scale than purgatory.

I must point out that I did manage to develop a heavy cold within 76 seconds of touching down in cold, forlorn and dour Manchester and that no doubt influenced my state of mind. I’m aware that colds take several days to incubate so unfortunately I can’t blame it on warm beer, the Royal Family or Mary Poppins as much as I’d like to.

I regularly speak to family and friends back in the UK and they frequently ask me if things are as bad economically speaking in the US as they are back home. I don’t listen to the news here that often, but when I do it’s usually wall to wall doom and gloom so I figure there really isn’t that much difference and say as much.

A bit like there’s not much difference between Manchester drizzle and a Kansas tornado.

Driving back from the airport to my sister’s house my brother-in-law had BBC Radio 4 on.  That was fun in a let’s stick forks in our eyes, bathe in battery acid and wear horsehair underwear kind of a way. At one stage I just wanted to burst into tears. I fully expected the presenter to say the Government had announced that anybody caught looking on the bright side of life would be taxed at 101% of their income, and then thrashed to within an inch of their life in public.

I think my brother-in-law sensed my declining mood and switched channels to lighten things up a bit, just in time for us to hear England get hammered at cricket in India.  Ho-hum.

You could be forgiven for clicking away at this stage, after all you haven’t come here to be whined at and read my tales of misfortune and woe. I’m a life coach I should be perky, right?

Our environment influences all of us to a greater or lesser extent. I’ve come to accept that I lean towards the greater end of that scale. If you throw me in a room full of miserable bastards, I will miraculously turn into a miserable bastard right before your very eyes. I’d like to think it’s a rare skill, but alas it isn’t, it’s about as rare as a stoner at a Grateful Dead concert.

Fortunately for my health and the sanity of those around me I got a handle on this several years ago. It was then I finally accepted that I wasn’t a realist but a lowdown and dirty pessimist. Not only that, but I had an uncanny knack of unloading my pessimism on others and bringing them down too.  Not a particularly pleasant revelation I can tell you.

If you’re a drug addict and want to quit drugs my first advice would be to start hanging around with people that are drug free. It’s not particularly profound in the advice stakes. But it is something that a lot of people don’t do either through ignorance, reluctance to change or a combination of both.

I know that if I expose myself to a constant stream of negativity I’ll be donning my pants of pessimism and cloak of cynicism quicker than you can say endogenous growth theory. So I do my best to avoid all that crap. I don’t listen to bad news, I seldom talk about the economy (except when clients raise it or to use it for examples like this one) and I don’t get into conversations that start off “Well I’m lucky to be living in this broken down rabbit hutch and eating snow for dinner in an economy like this”

Well of course you are. If that’s what you’re told to think over and over again then sooner or later the will drip-drip effect will have you believing that it’s the truth. Ladies and Gentlemen, a big round of applause for Mr. Self-Fulfilling Prophesy if you will please.

There’s another way though and that’s to refuse to get involved in the massive worldwide pity party. Yeh misery loves company, but so do horny Baboons and I’m not inviting them round for dinner and getting out my best Wedgwood dinner service just yet. (Note: The picture is actually Baboons taking part in last years beach leap frog competition and not what you may have thought)

Going back to the UK pitched me into an environment that doesn’t suit me. I honestly didn’t think that the UK could be more down on itself than the US, but it sure seemed like it was when I was there. My perception to begin with was that it was much harder to dodge the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune without ducking into a grenade than it is here.

On reflection though even if it is harder, it’s by no means impossible because if I can do it, ANYBODY can do it. Within a few days I’d started to tune the negative background noise out again. I didn’t turn the radio on when I went out in the car, I didn’t watch TV news and I shifted conversations away from the &*%^&$# economy because I suspected the Government weren’t waiting with baited breath to hear my thoughts on the matter.

So here’s my question to you.

What do you think would happen if you didn’t know there was a recession underway? Do you think you’d do anything differently? Would your outlook or demeanor change? Would you be more daring, less likely to accept second best? Would you be happier, more upbeat and more raring to go on a Monday morning?

If the answer to all or any of those questions is yes, why not just pretend? Pretend that this recession doesn’t apply to you. Pretend that your industry thrives in downturns. Pretend that it’s all over and you’ve come out smiling.

I know there will be people out there shaking their heads at my cavalier attitude and solemnly thinking I’m delusional. Maybe they’re right, maybe I am, but I’d rather be delusional and happy than realistic and miserable and that is a choice I can make every day.

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This is a post I wrote last year and I must be a soothsayer because it seems to have come true. Go figure.

Are you having a knee-jerk reaction? So asks Ali Hale from Alpha Student and about a million other blogs. Check it out because she’s a great writer!