Happiness for Investors. Why your happiness shouldn’t be tied to the DOW
October 12th, 2008
Many folks lost their behinds in the last week due to a major drop in the financial markets and corresponding free fall in the Dow Jones Industrial Index down to 20 year lows that occurred recently.
History has stories of people jumping out of windows during times like these. Heck, even recently a story from the UK outlined how a father and husband financial executive intentionally stepped in front of a train and finished himself off just because of the downward turn in the financial markets.
How stupid.
Get a grip people! It’s just money!
Money is not human. In fact, it is simply a physical representation of a mental concept. It’s just paper. Paper. Almost ordinary paper.
I’m trying to smash through a simple mental game that governments play. That’s all money is.
It’s certainly nothing to get upset about.
God invented sunrises and babies and fresh green grass and love.
Much better than money.
DO NOT TIE YOUR HAPPINESS TO THE DOW!
Challenges are not all bad. They’re just challenges.
We’re living through a financial challenge, that’s all.
You’ll get through it I promise.
You may have more or less money, you may take some time to get back where you were.
Who cares?
Most people’s concept of the value of money is how much “stuff” money can buy.
I can assure you that you can live a happier life if you simply untie your happiness from money altogether.
Strive. Work. Focus. Dream. Face down challenges. Compete. But don’t be unhappy while you’re doing it.
Look up from your work and realize that that beautiful sunrise you’ve been ignoring while you’re face down in a $6 cup of coffee was put there for you to enjoy. Enjoy it.
Observe life around you. Get your head out of the financial news.
Your real friends will still like you even if your portfolio is smaller than it was.
If you’ve trained your family correctly, they’ll be able to see that happiness doesn’t come from “stuff” so they won’t miss not having more new “stuff” for a while. You did teach that to your family, didn’t you?
Take them on a picnic instead of buying some multi-hundred dollar electronic whiz bang thing for their next birthday or holiday. Bring a Frisbee. Leave your Blackberry at home.
Your family will have a better time because they’re with you and they have 100% of your attention.
Action step: Re-read this article. Make a promise to yourself to separate your happiness from the financial news.
You will be amazed that with some simple (notice I didn’t say easy) changes to your thought processes you can actually live a consistently happy existence, no matter what the DOW.
Posted in Happiness observations |