I just got off the phone with a dear friend with whom I have not spoken in the last few weeks. He went out of town to visit his family over the holidays and just recently returned. He and I are in very similar situations personally, professionally and financially. We're both in our 50s, been out of work and in debt up to our eyeballs.

As a guy, it's not easy to have guy friends with whom you can have intimate conversations, so I consider myself fortunate that we have been able to forge a nice friendship to help each other get through these difficult times. It was great to hear that things are getting back on track for him. He is waiting on a job offer and working to get a mortgage loan remodifcation and negotiate a reduced payment plan with his credit card companies. Like me, he is a fighter. It was encouraging to see that there are solutions to seemingly insurmountable problems.

He also helped me assess a problem I am experiencing. Just explaining the situation to him helped me think out loud and see that while I am not out of the woods, there is still a good likelihood things will go my way. It's easy to catastrophize a situation, especially when the stakes are high. I am also going to imagine a positive outcome and work toward achieving it.