Between ‘energy’ drinks and lattes, the world’s hyped up and crazy. But it means most people are making terrible decisions, if they’re making them at all. Here’s my philosophy of drug use as it relates to financial freedom.
As an investor, have you ever thought about performance enhancing drugs?
You know, give you that little edge?
There are a number of socially sanctioned drugs available to the modern investor, but which one is right for you?
Now I’ll fess up, I’ve been struggling to maintain a healthy relationship with coffee, well caffeine really, since I was in my early 20s.
In one of my favourite Seinfeld skits, Jerry’s talking about the battle between night guy and morning guy. Night guy likes to stay up late and drink and party. Isn’t he worried about getting up and going to work? Nah, that’s morning guy’s problem. Every day morning guy wakes up and thinks, “Damn that night guy, he’s done it to me again.”
I used to have the same problem with coffee guy.
Coffee guy is excitable and full of passion. He runs on adrenal energy and has a ‘crash or crash through’ approach to life. Sometimes that’s all great. Sometimes it leads me right up the garden path.
When coffee guy’s on his high, everything’s awesome. He gets excited about everything. And he says the world in broad brushstrokes, like looking out the window of a speeding train.
So I’d wake up to find that coffee guy had booked me into a trekking holiday in the Andes, a Japanese calligraphy course AND signed me up for Zumba and a 12-month gym membership.
So that’s the first lesson I learnt. Don’t let coffee guy pick our life goals. He lives in a super-saturated world of colour. He can’t tell the difference between core life mission and ‘might be fun if I had ten lifetimes.’ Seriously. Japanese calligraphy.
The other thing I learnt about coffee guy is that he’s terrible at developing strategy. Coffee works the adrenals. They’re all about our fight or flight response. They release the charge we need to get us out of danger.
But by design, it’s a short burst of energy. And so I found that coffee guy wasn’t interested in developing methodical strategies that played out over multi-year time frames.
He wanted it all and he wanted it now. He turned his back on boring things like research, and steadily saving for a deposit. He was happy to gamble it all some high-risk, high-return strategy that just felt right in the moment.
Over priced cleaning products? Bring it on!
I learnt the hard way that coffee guy couldn’t be trusted. So I don’t let coffee guy near strategy and tactics anymore either. In fact, coffee guy only gets a run at social gatherings these days.
I think we all know how rushed life feels. And it feels like it’s a constant struggle to keep up. Coffee gives us that sense of keeping up… for a moment…
But maybe you’re not the problem. Maybe it’s the world that’s gone crazy. Maybe the world is revving into the red, and you were never meant to keep up.
One of the most common ambitions of my mentoring students is ‘more time.’ “The rat race should be open to all rats, but not made compulsory for the rest of us.”
And one of the key things I’ve learnt is that if you want to make good decisions, you’ve got to slow down.
When you’re laying out your life goals and trying to find your true calling in life, you’ve got to let all the dust settle – let all the prodding and pressure that comes at you fade into the back ground, until you come back to your true self. Your authentic self.
That authentic self is the life that wants to be lived. It’s like a destiny. And I believe that you’ll never find contentment until you align yourself with that. But to find it, you’ve got to slow down.
Same with tactics and strategy. You’ve got to come back to yourself and step from there. Don’t let coffee guy sign you up to getting up two hours earlier everyday to study. Come back to what’s reasonable and realistic, over the long-run.
Great legacies are often built little by little. The real challenge is keeping yourself driving forward after all the initial motivations have worn off, and you’re 5 years into a 20-year journey.
A friend of mine builds boats. Really beautiful boats. It’s just a hobby he enjoys, and he likes to take his time with it. Put a lot of care into each curve and each feature. He could probably bang them out a lot quicker if he wanted to, but you can really see how much work has gone into them. They’re truly works of art.
I think we can take the same approach to what we make of our lives. Slow down, take the care, focus on just one thing at a time, and then enjoy watching it unfold into something truly beautiful.
So that’s why I let beer guy make all my important decisions. Having a beer, sitting on the deck at the end of the day guy. Or sometimes, if I’m entertaining the ladies, chardonnay guy. He goes alright too.
These guys know how to slow down. Take some time to reflect, and come back to the things that are really important to me. As a result they make better decisions.
And then I run my tactics past several beers and a large pasta later guy. He’s very lazy. If the tactics work for him, then I know it’s doable.
(And yeah, I know, ideally, I should be consulting with meditation guy on all this. But I haven’t heard from him since the 70s. You’ve got to work with what you’ve got.)
But whatever you do, just don’t let the madness of the world stop you from running the race you were born to run.
Sow says
Jon, another masterpiece article. Your a great writer. Well done.
Filomena says
What an interesting and intelligent insight you have Jon! The bottom line of what a person want in his life, is to know what best suited to him or her. We can listen to different insights, advises, opinions and thoughts of others, but our own experiences should be the basis of our decisions what to do with our lives. It is only us who will suffer or reap the benefits and enjoyment our efforts brings not the others, so we only implement the different ideas, opinions and advises that best suited for us, not entirely what has been transpired. We are all masters of our destiny, but only follow the process that best suited to our own limitations as a unique person from the rest, for we are all unique in our own ways. Very thought provoking and true to life kind of article and love it!
Donna says
I really love a great story from a highly intelligent person, still trying to work out what my citizenship is worth! Haha, I used to throw your mail into the junk and since I have stopped to read it I must admit I have been thoroughly entertained, thank you. Donna
Alasdair Baker says
Hi Jon. I agree with Donna. I literally get hundreds of emails and blogs through my inbox on a monthly basis distracting me and stealing my precious time in the midst of our crazy lives whilst trying to keep an eye on the prize in terms of goals etc and your blogs are the only ones I now take the time out to read. Great fun, insightful and well written. Keep it up. Cheers Alasdair
Tom says
Hear! Hear! Alasdair!
pb says
What a warm and wise article: an invitation to appreciate the tactics and strategies of a good life over a beer and pasta.
Helen says
hear hear Jon! another friday – another gem. Cheers.. Helen
M says
That’s why beer and coffee taste terrible together. They should not be had at the same time!
EO says
I never read your emails, and I never write comments on blogs.
But sitting here today burnt out with work and life something made me read this and I had the biggest bloody epiphany ever.
“That authentic self is the life that wants to be lived. It’s like a destiny. And I believe that you’ll never find contentment until you align yourself with that. But to find it, you’ve got to slow down”
I think we all struggle to find the balance between push push push achieve achieve achieve and actually just doing what we really love to do and living a life of contentment because we’re doing what we really love to do. You can still be amazingly successful and blissfully content at the same time – your words are a realisation of that.
Coffee vs Chamomile – or perhaps somewhere in between the two.
Thank you for posting that.
Alvin Purple says
Jon, I can honestly say that I am looking forward to your no-B.S. Friday piece every Friday. I also put your email address on my white list to make sure your down-to-earth messages don’t end up in my junkmail. And my white list isn’t very big.
seagarden08 says
Isn’t coffee used to overcome procrastination and early onset of alzeimers? Or at least that’s what I use it for!
Steve Hambly says
I love it, fantastic article
June says
After a long time of just passing over your blogs in my emails Jon, I actually read one a few weeks ago, and now I look forward to them. You have a great sense of humour and a wonderful way with words. Looking forward to next week’s blog 🙂
Dean says
As long as you stop decision making processes when the beer goggles miraculously appear…all should be fine.
Lydia says
Love it !
Prem says
Nice one Jon
I meditate too & yes it is the best thing ever !
I was lucky enough to be initiated into , this practice ,back in 1989
Cheers
Prem
Julie says
Procaffeineation – the inability to start anything until one has had a coffee!
Eileen says
A friend rang me one evening and asked what I was doing. I said I’m having a glass of champagne. He said Oh, what’s the celebration? I replied………….because life isn’t a dress rehersal!
Many people go through life as though it were. I recently heard that a lot of guys don’t like sports, but pay attention to the big games as they want to be able to join in the conversation at work, dinner parties and barbecues.
How sad is that? What wonderful conversations are they missing out on, simply because they want to fit in! So if you’re guilty of this, (or something similar) I ask you to try to be honest with your friends and yourself and keep it real. Discuss the things that matter, take the risks that you feel might enrich your life.
I bought a property last August and had just finished renovating it, then Christmas came and went. By the time I put the turkey platter away, I got a call from a real estate agent about an email I had sent (late at night and after a drink or two) about a property that I had been interested in. I’ve sent emails before about properties I’d seen on the internet, but never had a reply……until now.
The property was a bank repossession and priced to sell but it was very bad timing for us as my husband had just recovered from all the renovating of the last place. We could have ignored the call but I said “do you want to look at it, it can’t hurt” ? 30 minutues after we viewed it, we bought it!
We were up for a lot of trouble and over two and a half months of waiting before we got it, (banks don’t care about repo’s). The moral of the story is you have to take a chance, put yourself out and go for what you want!
Filomena says
I like your comment Eileen for you took action, getting out from your comfort soon and bought the property, good job for there are only few who can do what you did because of fear, whatever risks there might have been. Well done!
Ken. says
I read Jon’s first email and all others about property and have learned a lot, not only because they were similar to my beliefs, but primarily because he didn’t ask me for my credit card details, understand?
Helena Smirnis says
Slowing down to reconnect with YOUR Truth, and makes you happy , is always the best place to start from.
Love this Article, Keep them up.
Suzie says
Hi Jon
Ditto to pretty much everything everyone has said, above. I, too, used to delete your emails, along with all the others that came in, until I took the time to read one. I then read a few more and really enjoyed them. And, of course, once you mention Seinfeld along with Authenticity you have my attention!! 🙂 I am a Seinfeld fan from way back and I did my Honors in Existential Authenticity so it is something of a passion of mine. Anyway, keep up the good work!
Best
S
YoiYoi