We in the crypto world certainly know a thing or two about market downturns. The same rhetoric and fears are now front and center regarding markets these days — everyone is trying to anticipate when the “big one” will hit. 

The doomsdayers are out with their pitchforks going down to the local gold merchant to purchase their ounce or kilogram of guaranteed survival for when fiat money burns.

First, it was one article stating a recession is coming. Then it was a couple. And now it’s every single day that we are being warned a recession is coming.

It makes us fearful, scared, and most of all, stops us taking action.

Before you praise the people who want your attention, because they think that somehow knowing a recession coming makes them a guru better than Gandhi — don’t forget that every decade there is a downturn and it’s completely obvious to anyone who has been alive for a recession or two. This is not new information.

Recessions happen

There was the dot com crash, the 2008 global financial crisis, the huge crash in the ’70s and the worst one of all that keeps getting referenced as though it’s similar to the next one: The Great Depression.

Recessions are a normal part of market cycles. They are designed to take all the complacency, optimism and cockiness you have acquired over a given decade of life, and bring you back down to a healthy level of reality.

It’s easy to think that what goes up will always go up, and never come down.

Markets will come down and you want them to otherwise you’ll be living in a giant bubble that when it does pop, has the power to produce a recession far bigger than any great depression.

Recessions are normal and they are nothing to be frightened of. Don’t let your attention be taken for a ride.

You can’t predict the timing

I don’t care if you are Warren Buffett; you cannot predict a recession.

There are false starts, further highs and tiny lows that seem meaningless all before a recession comes. A day in the markets can feel like a recession and then the following day everyone can be standing on their tables in their Wall Street offices cheering that a new Bull Run is on its way.

No one can predict them just like no one can predict what content will and won’t go viral.

The magic of a recession is its unpredictability because with unpredictability comes some of the best life lessons.

We always recover from recessions

Unless you believe the human race is doomed and will end shortly, then know that we will always recover from a recession.

A recession is the winter season of business and money itself. Winter doesn’t last forever and statistically, on average, it takes around two years for things to go back to their original highs.

Believing that a recession dooms us all is buying into the bigger idea that we’re all screwed, which is probably something far more important to analyze in your spare time than a recession.

You can thrive in a recession

Some of the biggest and best businesses were created in a recession.

The cool part about recessions is that everything is on sale and you can pick up bargains that allow you to do well financially. Because of the 2008 recession, we got this beautiful, strange thing called Bitcoin which hasn’t been tested in a recession yet.

We should look forward to the next recession to see what other beautiful ideas, businesses and entrepreneurs are born out of all the doom and gloom. If you can thrive in a recession, then you can battle just about anything in your life.

Recessions are where mental toughness is built and your optimism is tested.

What to do when the next recession comes?

I have lived through several recessions and in 2008, a business I loved nearly got wiped out because of it. (Although the part that is hard to talk about is that the root cause was actually more me and my crappy attitude — the recession just highlight my own flaws.)

When a recession comes, remember these helpful tips:

*Be patient

*Don’t do anything drastic

*Keep putting in the work

*Look for opportunities while many will be suffering from despair

*Don’t take stupid risks to try and capitalize on the situation

*Pay down debt where you can so you’re not caught

The conditions we work and live in are different during a recession. A weakness that holds you back could be a flaw someone is willing to overlook because of the state of mind they are in.

People make decisions differently and that can produce entirely different results you may not have been able to get otherwise.

And most of all, be kind to people who are affected.

No matter how smart you are, you too could lose everything you have so be compassionate for those who may experience hardship.

Help out where you can; tap into the kindness that humans are born with.

A recession is not the end of the world and it doesn’t have to hold you back.