Last week saw the start of March Madness, the dreams of 64 of the nation’s top men’s and women’s NCAA college basketball programs were one the line as teams look to cut down the nets in the final game and hoist the trophy in celebration. Every year we hear about the Cinderella story, the team that is expected to lose the first round and defies expectations by winning moving on in the brackets. I am always surprised by this idea coming out each year, especially because these are the best teams out of the 356 division 1 teams that have basketball programs, meaning that anyone of them could win it all.
It reminds me each year of stocks that are underperforming the previous year and then suddenly are some of the best performing the current year. Now, this does not mean that every investment that does bad one year will perform better the next, one must look at quality investments that have a track record of not only performing well when the market goes up but also how management gets the company through the tough years as well. With it being playoff time, we notice 3 ideas that you can take from these top teams in the country and apply to your life to become better in other aspects of your life.
- Downturns happen, everyone will face them in life, sports, business and most importantly in your time as an investor. How you deal with the downturns determines if you will have the fight through to become a champion. The smartest people in the world know that to enjoy the good times you must have a plan to get through the bad. Downturns are normal, they are followed by upturns and the upturns last significantly longer.
- Accomplish your three most important tasks as early in the day as possible. During an interview, Jeff Bezos said that to be successful he only expects to make 3 good decisions a day while getting his most important things done by noon. By focusing on the 3 most important tasks you ensure you are more likely to accomplish your goals and you have a tendency to not do “busy” work that makes you feel like you are getting to your goal but you actually don’t get anything substantial done. We recommend getting these tasks done early so that you create momentum for the rest of your day.
- Schedule time in your day to self-evaluate, as humans we tend to focus on the one thing you should have done better. Stop doing this as soon as possible, instead focus on the positive by acknowledging three things that you did well. These three things do not need to be earth shattering, they simply need to get you 1 inch closer to your goal. In investments this can be paying off more debt, adding to savings or focusing on the investment choices that you made that are doing well. Being positive about yourself will bring more positivity to your life and help you avoid focusing on mistakes you made, when mistakes are made make a quick and decisive change, then move on from them.
If you want to take one step in a positive direction this week schedule time to use our Adaptive 360 Wealth Management system to evaluate your progress towards a financial goal, identify a need, and streamline a path for achieving your dreams.