Sometimes when you’re fighting – whether it’s to survive another month, pay rent, afford food or maybe you have it worse off than that, it’s easy to forget that you’re human.  Causality – the decisions you make, how you handle problems, the rules you fight by, whether you allow your decisions to negatively affect other people, these things speak to your life.  Remembering that you’re human gives you dignity, it lets you make respectable decisions.

Humanity is in short supply these days.  Need proof?  The WSJ has all you need – companies are seeking the already-employed to fill positions when only 20% of 2009′s graduating class have jobs after applying for them.  Not very human of them… sort of… monster-ish.

With these ideas in mind, I examined some of my own decisions:

• When I first was laid off, I could choose to panic about being laid off in a recession or to get to work looking for a job.
  • I chose to look for work.
• When I started my job search, I had to fight the urge to apply for programming jobs I knew I could land but would be horrible for my soul.
  • I chose a new career.
• When I heard back from only 5% of the jobs I’d applied for, I had to fight the urge to get bitter.
  • I chose to seek better options.
• When I had to pay my medical bills, I had to fight the insurance company to pay the full amount, the doctors to reduce the fees, and to arrange a payment plan with the hospital.
  • I chose to borrow what I needed until I could do better.
• When I filed for unemployment, I had to fight the other unemployed 7.9%  of the state of Colorado (approximately 400,000 people) to get a call in.
  • I chose to be persistent.
• When I found out I was denied for unemployment, I had to choose between fighting my friends and former colleagues or going broke.
  • I chose to go broke.
• When I decided to pull my IRA, I had to fight the urge to pay off my credit cards so that I could pay rent instead.
  • I chose to budget better and eat less.
• When I ran out of money to pay rent, I had to fight with the leasing property to arrange a payment plan.
  • I chose to keep negotiating until I had a better option.
• When I tried to pay rent according to my payment plan, I had to fight with the bank to get a simple Money Order.
  • I chose to do whatever it took to make it happen.
• When I started up my own business to make a living, I fought my parents who thought I was wasting my time.
  • I chose to ignore them.

When you have to fight, don’t forget that you are human.