I’m seriously guilty of this.
I worry about it all the time, and I bet you do too.
It’s that deep-seated feeling that there might be a chance you’ll fall behind; that you’ll screw everything up.
You must pay attention to everything that is going on around you or else you’ll completely lose touch with your surroundings. And then you’ll fail.
At work, at home and even with your friends, we’re always trying to keep up by constantly digesting information and understanding how to make our next move. In reality, you and I are just imitating our surroundings to make ourselves feel comfortable with the way people perceive us – but, inside we are rarely truly comfortable.
Basically it’s the fear of missing out (FOMO) that so many of us are afflicted by. It’s a discontent that is just annoying enough to give us a constant feeling of uneasiness, but not too uncomfortable that we can’t function in society.
Our fear is that we’ll become that person that nobody wants to talk to because we have nothing interesting to say. We won’t know what’s going on in the news, what’s popular, or who is the next big superstar.
I know that deep down inside I don’t really care about any of that crap – and I know you don’t either. But, we both have something that makes us dig for that up-to-date information, like a crack addict searching for the next high.
Instead of sticking to our true passions we sway with the way trends are going, we change our minds based off of public opinion and we change our lives to conform to the way people expect us to live.
The crazy thing is that in order to become the most successful person and to have the feeling of ultimate satisfaction, we all must do the complete opposite of what we are doing. We must immerse ourselves in what we truly love and enjoy. We have to become experts in what our passions are and we have to focus time on the things that will sustain our interest.
If you look at any famous icon, be it a person or a place, the one reason why they are popular is because they are continuing on a path that is unique to them, instead of copying or keeping up with the flavor of the week.
We all know this, though. We know that individualism is what attracts us to people, but it’s so hard for us to do what we know is right.
Pursuing a path that has not been cleared for us is scary. No one is there to help us and even worse, some actually want us to fail. It’s not until we finally succeed do the followers come out of the woodwork, much like celebrities always complain about how everyone becomes their best friend after the have “made it.”
So what’s the solution to overcome this predicament that we are in?
Go with your gut – you’ll be right every time.
Because the only person who is going to care about how happy you are is YOU. Once you have happiness, the followers will follow; and you’ll stop following.
This idea of constantly being influenced by others is why most people lose money in the stock market or why many people blow money on useless garbage.
Investing and growing your money is all about patience. As an investor you have to be patient when finding where to put your money and then you have to be patient to let your investment work.
The average investor holds a stock for less than a year, compared to the 1960s when investors average holding period of a stock was 8 years.
The rise of the internet has given us access to information with lightening speed, which has allowed us to constantly change our opinion of the world and what the future may look like.
But, guess what? The information that you and I read online is nothing more than someone’s opinion about what is going to happen; they don’t know anything more (or less) than we do.
…And it’s not just investing that has been distorted by out lack of confidence in ourselves… it’s our health too.
We all know how overweight our population has become. The causes are endless, but the bottom line is that people don’t have enough discipline to consume less than their body needs.
Furthermore, people don’t have the patience to stick to a diet regime which will actually allow them to shed weight and live a healthier lifestyle.
Distractions like different food options, diet plans, exercise routines and other trendy health kicks always cloud people’s decisions. What ultimately happens is nothing! Or even worse, more weight is gained.
When we focus on the things we are going to miss out on, we end up missing out on everything because we lack the concentration to follow one path.
So here is the bottom line: you and I won’t miss out . . . and . . . go with your gut.
