An Introspecting Investor

Writing is a natural progression in my introspecting investing journey.  The journey began during my time weightlifting and continued into business.  I’m convinced that introspection is a requirement for humanity.  I started my lifting journey as a Navy Seal candidate where we trained in running, swimming, and cross fit style lifting. At this point in my life, I was basically an endurance athlete.  I had never lifted seriously before (I opted out of any sort of lifting in high school), and was generally good at the light weight, high volume training. It wasn’t until I dropped out that I was forced to introspect on why I failed.  

Eyes Lie, Introspecting Doesn't

When it comes to introspection, fictional books or historical stories may have more truth than we originally think. The stories are still written by humans, and art is also constructed by humans.  It’s amazing I need to state that, but in this current age of artificial intelligence, we (collectively as they human race) think that AI is going to take over all jobs, especially writing. Let me tell you, it won’t.  AI isn’t human.  It’ll never contemplate what it’s like to be mortal. To feel this feeling in the gut when you’re in love or nervous.  To lose sleep night after night when you just can’t figure out what’s bothering you.  There are elements to being human that both cause us pain, but we also take for granted.  As we age, we need to start leaning into those aspects of being human instead of fighting it. There might be a brand-new artwork genre where AI writes and draws based on its own introspection of being an AI being, but it can't reflect on being human.

Our eyes our deceitful.  They see what we want them to see. Our eyes can only recognize things we’ve been exposed to or that we think about. We create our own little filter of the world based on our cognitive biases. Unless we train them otherwise.  IF you’re a negative person, your eyes will only see negative events. If you’re a lustful person, your eyes will only see everything that you don’t have.  When you’re lifting, the mirror is one of your biggest enemies. Our body is not symmetrical.  Plato went through a period of time (maybe it was his whole life) where he tried in vain to make his body move identically between left and right.  I made this same mistake.  This is wrong because your body needs something to pull against, it needs a way to get started.  Everyone's body is slightly different in this way (I am speculating).  This is why it’s important for a fitness process to try and teach introspection (like the Z-Plane) over a checklist of exercises for building various muscles.  It’s also important for the reader to have a series of activities that help bring on that introspection.  Body movement is a personal journey no matter if you’re lifting, running, biking, yoga, hiking, doing manual labor, etc.  Anything in life where one moves the body requires some sort of athleticism and introspection. The reader doesn’t need to have the bodybuilding bug inside their head.  Maybe you’d just like to eliminate sciatica or lower back pain.

Everything is Relative

Matthew 25:29: For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. (New International Version)

The dubbed Matthew Effect is a concept in economics (and usually the knock against capitalism) that inequality is built into most systems.  Whoever has the resources will obtain more resources and whoever doesn’t have resources will continue to lose resources.  Although this is true, there’s a more profound meaning to what the message was getting at, and it lies in introspection.  Yes, this concept holds true that people with resources continue to gather more resources.  There’s an old adage stating that compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world.  Those that understand it, earn it and those that don’t, pay it.  Anyone with money can earn more money (even if it’s just a risk-free government rate). The amount of money earned over time is the real variance.  But if we break it down, no amount of money means anything after our basic needs are fulfilled.  So, money earned in this case is relative.

The foundation of the Matthew Effect is not monetary or economical but merely perception.  There are people that never have to work another day in their lives and have nothing, while there are people that will never retire that have everything. (All dependent on how you perceive value) What we have is a matter of perception.  (The grass is always greener on the other side, so just water your own lawn) Each human possesses tools and resources to exist in life.  We may start out in different countries, different situations, different family backgrounds, but each human has the ability to thrive. Each human can view the world as an opportunity or a shortcoming.  I know plenty of people that grew up with rich parents and all the resources to thrive, yet they sit around and whine because they're incapable of seeing any beauty in normal everyday life. These children who were given everything from an economic standpoint have zero friends, zero family, no concept of love (love is sacrifice) for another human.  The world revolves around their limited viewpoint of entitlement. That is a personal hell.  

I also know plenty of people that have just enough to maintain a small house, a plot of land, and a loving family. These people have learned to love, be present, and enjoy what human existence is.  Would anyone in their right mind choose the former situation? Probably, but I’d say they weren’t in their right mind.  Life is about perception and our perception is either geared towards opportunity or fear. The older I get the more I just want to read, write, and talk with people that I can learn from or teach.

Summary

The main point I want to convey from a body mechanic view is this.  You are given a set of gifts that are different from everyone else.  You need to identify what those gifts are and use them to your advantage. Watching YouTube and Instagram videos is helpful but once you start envying people, you’ve lost your advantage. 

Once you start envying, you try and manipulate your body and your mind to be something it is not.  You only witness bits of pieces of anyone else's life.  You have no idea if that person is acting, putting on an image, or only recording videos when things are “optimal”.  Most likely, that’s what’s happening.  Never envy anyone because they don’t have all the answers.  Learn the gifts of your own body and you’ll be (mostly) free of chronic pain and disappointment.  Maybe your gifts lie outside of a weightlifting environment.  Maybe you’re more geared towards manual labor or physical chores.  The domain of body movement doesn't matter, in fact I’d argue that the further you are from the gym and closer to functional real-life movement like walking, running, and manual labor, the happier you’ll be. (Happiness equals contentment not excitement)