New Year’s Eve 2018
I am not a big fan of the celebration of New Year’s Eve but it does denote leaving one year and moving into the next. I tend to be more reflective ending summer and moving into the fall, as I will always think of summer as vacation and September as the new beginning of the year.
For me, 2018 was a transformative year. I started new and exciting projects. I began to rethink my investing thesis. I started to say no to things that don’t do anything for me. I began to meditate. I gave myself a lot of space to breath.
I will continue moving forward in 2019 on the road I finally got to in 2018. I no longer feel like I need to climb every mountain that comes my way. Maybe it is age, maybe it is the times, maybe it is just a lot of hard work that finally got me to this place or more than likely a combination of all three. I am really excited about this year.
Wishing everyone a happy healthy 2019. Let’s hope that there will be less turmoil in the world and more time to spend with friends and family.
Comments (Archived):
Happy New Year! I think 2019 is going to make 2018 look like a cakewalk… but sort of like re-entering the atmosphere after going into outer space. While it’s exponentially more terrifying and uncomfortable than the ride up, at least on the way back down, you’re heading for home.
Great way to put it
I no longer feel like I need to climb every mountain that comes my way. Maybe it is age, maybe it is the times, maybe it is just a lot of hard work that finally got me to this place or more than likely a combination of all three.Working hard, like many things that give pleasure, is an addiction. At a certain point you reach diminishing returns on the time spent and it ceases to give the pleasure that it did in the past when it was newer to you. Since it’s hard to ramp up the thing that gives the reward (like with drugs) you would then tend to stop the activity to find something else to replace the pleasure (or pain/pleasure cycle).This is my personal theory. Not something that I read or was told. Just from observations in life.I actually found this with respect to business early on. It became less interesting to me and I wanted to sell when I realized that with a certain certainty I would earn a predictable amount each year. When you start (and early on) you think the sky is the limit. Then you pretty much settle in to the normalcy of where the business will fall every year (same, increase, decrease). You realize that at the level you are at you aren’t going to hit it out of the park. At that point it no longer becomes interesting. Perhaps that is part of what is happening with your investing. Plus the long time frame means reinforcement is not around the corner. (That is why I like small wins that are fast as well as bigger wins that take longer you get a fix to tide you over!)Now this is not the same for everyone. I was talking last month to a guy who runs his family’s supermarket chain. Can’t imagine anything more boring (along the lines of what I am saying) than that. You know there is very little you can do to move the needle. In a way you are just an administrator or manager and collecting a predictable salary and profit. (My point is it’s not a challenge and isn’t very stimulating to run supermarkets or anything where you pretty much know from year to year what you will end up earning.)
Great insightful observationsThanks
Happy New Year to you and the family!New Years celebrations mean little to me. The pause for reflection and reevaluation means everything though.
Marking a lap around the ball of fire means little to me. I’m more in tune with the seasons.
My most reflective period is last two weeks of August. Kids at camp, just me and my wife away on holiday up in Ontario at the cottage. September is my new year too!Regardless, happy 2019 to you and the entire Wilson family!
Happy 2019, Joanne! Thank you, as always, for writing and sharing. 🙂
Happy New Year 2019, Joanne! Wishing you and your loved ones a healthy, happy and prosperous new year!
Happy New Year!