^[1]Yes, I’ve made an executive decision. The next person who tells me that “times are tough” or who says “… but we’re in a recession you know!” is getting slapped.

I consider this slapping a national service. We’ve got a less-than-admirable habit in this country of trying to one-down each other with how much our lives suck. It’s an unpleasant and unflattering habit, particularly from a business point of view.

Okay, so for starters – Australia? Not in recession! Yay team us!

In fact, we are the envy of the international business community, with a recent survey ^[2] from Servcorp showing that international business people put us at the top of a list of countries they see as doing the best at the moment. (China was in second place and NZ all the way down in 9^th place.)

So no more R word, okay? Good. I’m glad we’ve got that cleared up.

“Times are tough.” No, they’re not. Or at least, they are for some people. And if you’re one of them, you need to stop telling people as often. Because, frankly, if you keep saying that around your clients, times will become tough. Regardless of the economic climate, no one wants to do business with a loser.

Also, no one likes a whiner. So quit it.

The fact is, as you’ve heard over and over again, more fortunes have been made in times of recession and depression than in any other part of history. And we’re twice blessed – the rest of the world is hurting and Australia isn’t in nearly as much pain.

Which means that those of us who have been in business for a little while, who have strong enterprises, networks and generally know what we’re doing, are so far ahead of the rest of the world right now that it’s incredibly exciting.

This is the greatest time in history and a large portion of the business world seems to be off somewhere missing it, with their heads in the sand. Stop it. Get on board, embrace the economic climate and celebrate the opportunities around you! The economy will be on the way up again before you know it – so take advantage of the short time that you have in which everything is stacked in your favour!

Leela’s tips for removing the R Word from your vocabulary:

• Stop watching TV. No really. If anything of interest happens in the world, it’ll be on Twitter first anyway. TV makes money from selling you how much stuff sucks (so that the advertisers can then sell you their products to take the suckyness away).

• Stop spending time with people who use the R word. It’s very easy to get dragged down and feel bad because friends and colleagues are hurting. But if you start failing, is that going to make them succeed?

• Watch your syntax. The more you use words like recession, tough, hard, difficult, no money – the more you’re going to see those very things all around. Call it ‘attraction’. Call it your ‘reticular activating system’. Call it ‘you get what you think about’. Call it whatever you like, as long as the R word is not involved.

• Get into fights. Yep. The next time someone tells you about the recession or how tough stuff is, argue with them. Not only will it cement the opinion in your own head, hopefully you’ll also help some other business owners see the light.

Leela Cosgrove is Managing Director of Business Writers Anonymous ^[3], focused on sales, marketing and business development. She is also a firewalker, has a black-belt in Tae Kwon Do, a penchant for tattoos, and enjoys bands such as Rammstein, Li Bach, Marilyn Manson, Pennywise and Bad Religion.