What “color” is my parachute? Sh*t brown, thanks for asking.

What do you do when the rug gets pulled out from under you, when your safety net gets trashed, when your nest egg spoils and the tightrope you’re on starts wobbling?

Forget it all and keep moving forward.

What else can you do? Nothing good. Here is a sampling of the options:

• Find someone to blame for your problems. That’s nice, then what? Avoid the person at parties? Trash him on Facebook? Now you’re world is not only painful, but socially awkward, too. Or do you sue him? The legal system is expensive and designed to take emotion out of the equation, so now you’re angry and in a process that doesn’t give you the two things you want most: your money back or catharsis.
• Drink to forget your problems. This is kind of like saying, “After I flubbed that first quiz, the best I grade I can earn is a B… F*k it, let’s party!” Yes, I get the appeal… but then you get that voice in your head telling you you’re your own worst enemy, and then you start rationalizing how that’s not true (even though you know it is), and then you build this little fantasy world around you so you never have to admit you’re wrong, and after awhile, you start to really not like yourself, because you find you have more in common with Blagojevich and Octomom than with normal people, and even though you look great at all the parties, you cry yourself to sleep. Yucko.
• Stress out and share your angst with those you love. Why do people do this? They make themselves so annoying that the people they need can no longer physically tolerate them. These are the people I *want* to help, but then I look at the phone and think about them and… can’t… quite… call them.
• Fall off the map. Yeah, finance didn’t work out so well, so you’re thinking of trying, what, marketing? engineering? WTF are you thinking? Look, if there’s something you’re passionate about, go do it. But if you’re just changing to change, stop. Now’s the time to double down on your strengths. If the change you’re making leads others to say, “Way to make lemonade from lemons,” good for you. But if people look at you and say, “Oh! Oh… uh, OK…” that’s pretty serious feedback you need a cranial/rectal extraction. (You may need to make an appointment.)
• Live in the past. I don’t even know what to say. Living in the past is like watching a movie over and over and over hoping for a different ending every time. Living in the past makes you goofy.

Move forward. It all works out in the end. (Just because you don’t like roller coasters doesn’t mean they don’t come to an end.) Here are 5 questions to test to see if you are setting yourself up to handle the stress of today’s world as best as possible. You want to answer “Yes” to all of them:

1. Are you actively looking for things to love about the life you have?
2. Do you create small routines to give yourself the structure you need in the face of a world of ambiguity?
3. Have you gotten a handle on your emotions so you have capacity for the next crisis?
4. Do you remind yourself that people can be good and trustworthy by being good and trustworthy yourself?
5. Do you maintain your sense of humor?

If you do these things, your attitude permeates everything you do: your resume improves, your cover letters get better, your interviewing skills improve, and you haven’t have done a thing except think differently about your world.

This is the power of a forward-looking attitude. Get one.

Jason Seiden is Co-founder and CEO of Ajax Social Media, a training company that shows professionals how use social media to work more effectively.