I Give You "Permission" to Just Get By (at least for now)

My immigrant family came to the New Country because it was the land of opportunity. Embedded in that positioning was this: It was up to you to go out and make things happen. Not ambitious enough? You wound up on public assistance and was shamed.

That same early 20th century value system dominates right now. That's even amidst:

Wage deflation, which The Wall Street Journal documents isn't pretty.

Extreme employment insecurity. If you're fortunate enough to laid another job, Indeed reports that'll take about five months. And, see above, the new job will probably pay less than your previous one. For the over-50, Pro Publica has been telling us for years that only one in 10 of you will earn comparable compensation of the job you were pushed out of.

The great unknowns associated with generative AI. Already in the legal sector, chair of elite law firm Paul Weiss Brad Karp has gone on record indicating that Gen AI could eliminate the jobs of junior lawyers. The low hanging fruit for AI applications is to do the low- value tasks relatively inexperienced lawyers get paid way too much to do. 

This is the new order of things, at least in March 2025. Yet, so many clients for tarot readings "confess" how less-than they feel because they're "just getting by." 

Essentially the session entails my giving them "permission" to, yes, just get by, and for them to accept that permission. 

Sure, they can still dream. 

Sure, they can experiment with multiple other income-producers. Popular with clients is doing versions of dumpster-diving and selling those finds on eBay, Craigslist, NextDoor, Facebook Marketplace, farmers markets, their own websites and more. Bursting at the seams with pride, one client emailed this photo of a first dumpster-dive sourced sale - $10 in their pocket:

And, sure, you can invest in creating a fresh career path. Certifications and licenses usually are grounded in labor market realities. 

For those of you who tend to be driven, ambition might be a curse, right now. The high vibrations can be channeled into something else that can have meaning for you. 

The trick, of course, is to be able to raise those vibrations back up as circumstances change. And lower them again with shifts in that brutal law of supply and demand.

During the worst of the mid 1970s economic downturn we highly educated and once highly ambitious boomers had to lay low. You got it: Just get by. That constituted not having to move back home with parents we didn't get along with. 

Then out of nowhere came job openings in global corporations. 

At the end of the 1980s, not exactly out of nowhere (we had learned to size up business dynamics), came corporate downsizing. 

It was downright fun to become The Accidental Generation of Entrepreneurs.

Meanwhile I found purpose in leveraging the psychic skills my Eastern European family passed onto me. In a sense I got off the rollercoaster of where ambition can take you and put together what matters to me.

Takeaway: In the tarot there is the Four of Swords. That's the Pause Card. 

While you're just getting by invest that part of your life into sorting out what gives you purpose. You can shake off the Americana "must" of having to chase after every opportunity. 

Have to change? As your intuitive career coach/tarot reader I guide you in transitions. Clients range from lawyers to entrepreneurs to the trades to new graduates. Free confidential consultation. If we work together, fees are what you can afford. To connect: Jane Genova (text/phone 203-468-8579, janegenova374@gmail.com). In-person and remote.