When you are self-employed, the phrase feast or famine is common place.

Since I have been self-employed longer than most people are employed, I have heard it a lot.

Along with feast and famine comes downpour or drought, nothing or almost too much.

For the employed, it may feel the same way — too many work projects, swimming in paperwork, or overwhelmed with details or e-mails.

And if you should go from employed to suddenly unemployed, especially if it is your first time being unemployed, it can really create that famine or drought feeling.

For some people, the current economy pushes them that way too. Christine Livingston, A Different Kind of Work, talked about that the other day in her post, The Purpose of Doom and Gloom. Her post made me think enough that I left a fairly long comment over there. Christine is in the UK and the recession that is still affecting the US economy is creating headlines there too.

As I said over there, I don’t listen to the news much. I try not to focus on the things I can’t control. All I can do is do the best I can for the clients I have and keep moving forward, learning, growing, and connecting.

“Keep it positive”

Overly simplistic advice but whining or complaining in public rarely helps. I vent to a few chosen people when my load gets too heavy but I had feast and famine and downpours and droughts when we were in the best possible economy so I am used to the challenges.

What helps me most during those famine times is knowing that other people in the industry are feeling the same way and other people in general are feeling the same way. In the feast times, I try very hard to plan ahead and know that I need to set up reserves to conquer the famine moments. It is never easy to keep an eye on when thing can change, but if you do.

What about you? What do you do in famine or drought times? And how do you handle the feasts and downpours?