Dr. Nathaniel J. Williams Talks About Coping with the Tough Times

The current U.S. economy has a nasty habit of adding insult to injury, compounding job losses with skyrocketing gas prices. At times like these, it is easy to second-guess yourself about what you should do next.

"Anything that happens that makes you question your next step is rather debilitating. The question is 'Where do you go?' And if everyone around you is going through the same situation, who do you lean on to get some support? It's always a real challenge," said Dr. Nathaniel J. Williams via telephone.

An author, entrepreneur and motivational speaker, Dr. Williams is the author of several books, including "The Navigator of Life." This self-help guide helps people take stock of their lives and, as a result, make balanced decisions.

"The first thing to launch yourself is the mindset, then your attitude and then the spirit or demeanor that comes. It's that progression that comes out," Dr. Williams said. "So often, people want to change something that's a layer rather than getting to something that's the foundation. The mindset is the foundation. It needs to be promptly there. It's something that shows up when you enter the situation."

Before joining an Armed Forces Entertainment tour to speak to the troops, Dr. Williams spent some time talking about motivation with us over the phone.

He said that the attitude needs to be "clean, pristine and focused" on what you want to accomplish. "Then you need to have a particular method to your demeanor. There's a science to how you conduct yourself. Very often, misery loves company, so they (your friends and family) will pull you in that direction if they are able to," he said.

Dr. Williams said people typically are doing these steps at a time when their value has been placed in question by this situation of being let go from a job. "That's the tough thing, to ask those tough questions at a time when you are least able to answer them based on the current events," he said. "One of the other chapters in the book is where fear comes from. I learned that it comes from answering those 6 questions: the who, what, where, when, why and how.

No matter if it's a bad relationship or a job loss, people tend to make future decisions based on how they have been hurt in the past. "We start looking for girlfriends based on how we have been hurt. We start looking for jobs based on how we have been hurt. We started looking for a car based on a bad experience we had rather than how we can be inspired by what a car can potentially do and look for the assets in the car," he said.

A challenging situation, Dr. Williams said, starts people on the prowl for all the wrong things. "And we keep finding people and they don't work out. Just reminding yourself that you can't be led by the last bad thing that happened-the last bad relationship, the last bad job. I have to get motivated by the things that got me inspired," he said.