Earlier this evening I went out to drive around town for a while. I find it relaxing to get into the car and just drive around, listening to music. Tonight I listened to Metallicas "One" and some Red Hot Chilipeppers, and just cruised along the streets of Eskiltuna, thinking about life, the universe and everything.

I have a lot to think about these days. I'm taking the first tumbeling steps towards a new career and I have to decide which country I want to live in. It may sound strange, having the possibility to choose the country you want to live in, but my life is strange and I kind of like it beeing that way, or, rather, I love to hate it - I don't really know which.

Life sure is funny. It never turnes out as you planned, it always surprizes you and forces you to reconsider your situation in life, what you want out of life and the direction in which you're heading. In fact, the only constant in the universe is that everything is changing and the fact is that most of us don't do well with to many changes; changes makes us unsecure and therefor we perceive change as inherently bad. And that is a huge problem when facing a crisis in life.

However everything, and not just the economy, is cyclic and therefor it's very important to be careful with what we let define our identity. It's not what we have that makes us what we are, it's what we are that gets us what we'll eventually have. People tend to forget that and identify themselves only with what they have, which turnes out to be very painful when life turnes on them and takes what they have away from them. Of course they suffer; life just took away what they had, which also accounted for their whole identity. Now they are lost in life, asking themselves how the hell they ended up in such a bad shape.

So what's the solution? Is it to never have anything? Is to be poor the way to relinquish yourself from suffering? Absolutely not, at least not in my opinion, instead you should try to evaluate who you are regardless of the current situation. What positive features and what sound moral values do you posses, that never changes with the world? That is who you are, nothing more and nothing less. You can always loose money or a job as well as you always can make more money or get a new job. Your job or the amount of money that is available to you should only be a small part of who you are. There are other things that are more important and that brings you quality of life. Perhaps you are very helpful with your neighbourghs, or perhaps your spouse is the luckiest spouse in the world. Perhaps you are generous? What are the good things that makes you you? Because in these times of financial turmoil and job-cutting, many might loose all their selfconfidence in the same moment they loose their job.

I belive that, in order to always land on your feet, you need to know yourself and all your good features, those that won't change with the financial markets, the general economy or your personal financial situation. If you always know who you are, it's much easier to come to the conclusion that you are strong enough to pull through anything. Knowing that, feeling that and manifesting that to others around you makes you land on you feet. And it also makes you a natural leader in almost every circumstance, except if you are a woman trying to make a career in Romania. Why? Because men are men and have a hard thing getting mature.

B.