Musings on Real Value
Your attention is the most valuable currency there is. Spend it wisely.
Attend to your health and wellbeing, this is likely to give you a longer investment horizon.
Attend to the people you love. Make deposits of time with them as often as you can. Love in action and presence compounds like nothing else. Love with the tenderness and ferocity parents have for their newborn children. This will give you the strength to move mountains should you need to.
Focus your attention on nature from time to time. It has a lot to teach us. I have found no better hedge against the chaos, anxiety, and depression of modern life than a good walk in the woods or a stroll on the beach or a picnic by a mountain stream.
If you’re feeling unmoored, stay away from troubled waters. This is not the time for volatility or risk-taking. Give yourself time to float in stable seas. Let calm waters hold you until you reach land or find your anchor.
Endeavor to leave things better than you find them. The most powerful and courageous way to do this is to break cycles of violence and hatred by not succumbing to them yourself. Violence and hatred cannot be explained, they can only be suffered. They will wail for your attention. They will want to justify themselves to you. Don’t hear them out. Hate is a liability. It is a debt that can never be paid off. You cannot hate without giving rise to it in yourself. The very act poisons the hater. It is the ultimate diminishing return.
Choose to be present with your rage and pain when it rises. Comfort it. Hold it. Heal it. Channel it into something productive. Invest in healthy boundaries. Stay present. Trust your inner wisdom. Speak your truth. Be creative. Remember that healing is essential for high yield savings. Retribution and resentment are predatory lenders. Your body, mind, and spirit deserve to be free from hate or violence.
Love yourself and keep good company. Very few things offer a higher total return on investment than celebration, dancing, and shared laughter. They make almost everything better. Spend as much time as you can in celebration and community with people that make you feel better for having been in their company. You are never too old to play games, go out dancing, or laugh into the wee hours of the night.
Never forget how important it is to diversify. Be open to chance encounters. Smile at strangers. Say hello. Sit next to someone you don’t know and strike up a conversation. Random acts of kindness and connection are essential to a good portfolio. Everything is contagious. Don’t give up if people do not smile back. Be a proper creep and keep on spreading joy.
Compound your interest by staying curious, open, and willing to learn.
At the end of it all, may your assets far exceed your liabilities, and may your love be the generational wealth we all inherit.
