“Let all your efforts be directed to something, let it keep that end in view. It’s not activity that disturbs people, but false conceptions of things that drive them mad.” Seneca

Good morning,

How are those New Year’s resolutions coming along…..?

Have you found time to map out your intentions for the year? Have you revisited or established your long term goals and devised the road map that is going to help you get there? If not, it can start today…..

A good friend of mine send me a quote that goes something to the effect that ….you’ll watch an entire Netfix series when the first episodes are slow just because someone told you that it gets better – what if you looked at your goals like that and dedicated the time to watching your life get better instead.

What better time, now that we are into a new year (and that Yellow Stone season 4 has concluded) to start planning for your journey to be the individual you strive to be in the end….

I’m not suggesting that we ignore short term goals and medium term milestones, but developing your long term vision will be the goals that guide you.

Law 29 of The 48 Laws of Power is: Plan All The Way To The End. Robert Greene writes, “By planning to the end you will not be overwhelmed by circumstances and you will know when to stop. Gently guide fortune and help determine the future by thinking far ahead.”

The second habit in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is: begin with an end in mind. Having an end in mind is no guarantee that you’ll reach it….but not having an end purpose or vision in mind, is a guarantee you won’t. Ryan Holiday writes in his book “The Daily Stoic” that when your efforts are not directed at a cause or a purpose, how will you know what to do day in and day out? How will you know what to say no to and when to say yes? How will you know when you’ve had enough, when you’ve reached your goal, when you’ve gotten off track, if you’ve never defined what those things are?

The answer is that you won’t be able to unless you take time to formulate a long term vision. Take the time to clarify your intensions and enjoy the process – you might be surprised what you learn about yourself

And now, to the Markets

U.S. Treasury yields are climbing again here Monday morning, as we turn our focus to inflation data and a Senate testimony by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. Government bond yields have been on the rise to start the year, suggesting investors have been selling government bonds, pushing their prices lower and yields higher. Bond yields tend to be driven by expectations of the future. More specifically investors may be anticipating stronger growth, higher inflation, or higher interest rates, particularly in light of the U.S. Federal Reserve which released some notes from its December meeting that revealed the committee may be gearing up to withdraw its supportive policy faster than the consensus view. Important for me to highlight, rising bond yields are not necessarily a bad thing, but these episodes can create shortterm volatility but reinforce our positioning for higher yield environment.

Most noticeably, we have witnessed some strength of late in sectors like the banks that tend to benefit from higher bond yields as they are a driver of lending margins. Meanwhile, areas like technology and growth stocks in general have seen some weakness given how well they have done and the sensitivities of their valuations to bond yields. This may end up simply being a short-term rotation, similar to what we saw in the year ago period when bond yields witnessed a similar, but limited, ascent. It’s sure to be another interesting week of data, for the markets and on the covid front, as we continue to live through the ever-changing virus impact.

What we can control & what we don’t

An excerpt from Ryan Holiday’s Daily Stoic to consider as you start to brainstorm your Vision, especially in today’s uncertainty. “Today, you won’t control the external events that happen. Is that scary? A little, but it’s balanced when we see that we can control our opinion about those events. You decide whether they’re good or bad, whether they’re fair or unfair. You don’t control the situation, but you control what you think about it.

See how that works? Every single thing that is outside your control—the outside world, other people, luck, karma, whatever—still presents a corresponding area that is in your control. This alone gives us plenty to manage, plenty of power.

Best of all, an honest understanding of what is within our control provides real clarity about the world: all we have is our own mind. Remember that today when you try to extend your reach outward—that it’s much better and more appropriately directed inward.”

You can control your vision, and there for you can control your path forward, your intentional purpose

When sitting down and creating your long term Vision, remember, it’s an ever changing and dynamic exercise….one that we revisit often. It’s also important to remember that this goal setting is not mean to be reserved for financial capital, as it’s only one of the elements of wealth.

“Money is a way of measuring wealth but is not wealth in itself. A chest of gold coins or a fat wallet of bills is of no use whatsoever to a wrecked sailor alone on a raft. He needs real wealth, in the form of a fishing rod, a compass, an outboard motor with gas. But this ingrained and archaic confusion of money with wealth is now the main reason we are not going ahead full tilt with the development of our technological genius for the production of more than adequate food, clothing, housing, and utilities for every person on earth.” Alan Watts

Be well & enjoy the moments

Derek