“My life is a road, man. I need to keep moving.” Matthew McConaughey

Good morning & Happy Easter

It’s a beautiful Monday morning here in Ontario, and it was a wonderful weekend despite the fact that we are cruising into another lockdown.

As we are now more than a year into the pandemic, it’s evident that we are all exhausted and it’s easy to become frustrated and disheartened when we are not able to spend special holiday moments with family and friends.

In my view, these holidays are an opportunity to reflect, to think about how far we have come as individuals and as communities. It’s important that we take time to look out to the road ahead and understand where it is that we want to go. The most important thing is that we recognize the path we are on and ensure it’s where we intended to be and, if so, not to deviate from it….as it is the road will get us there.

Given that it’s a holiday Monday, I wanted to share some interesting insights from my weekend readings….trying to keep it lights and interesting for the Monday morning coffee.

The first reference, a white paper from Capital Group that was in line with our thinking of the future, shifting our thinking away from short-term toward looking out to the long-term. As an investment manager, it’s my job to understand perspective beyond the near term and look out to the distant future to understand where it is we are going. It’s how we understand positioning today, for the long term tomorrow, as we should all be focused on our long-term goals.

Below are 10 of the most exciting and in some cases life-changing developments uncovered through Capital Group’s global research efforts, extremely inspiring predictions that put the future in perspective and provides some reassurance that it looks bright for the long-term.

10 predictions for the next decade from Capital Group:

• Health care innovation will reach warp speed
• A cure for cancer may be around the corner
• Cash will be but a distant memory
• Semiconductors will be everywhere — and in everything
• Wearable technology will blur the lines of reality
• Digital entertainment will take centre stage
• Autonomous vehicles will hit the fast lane
• Green machines will rule the road
• Renewable energy will power the world
• Innovative companies will make the world better

Awesome stuff and certainly themes that we are watching closely – let me know if you’d like me to forward this to you and I’d be happy to send it along.

What’s not changing? The importance of long-term investing!

"I'm for money and I'm for fame, but how we get those things, how we treat others, how we treat ourselves, fills the soul's account along the way, and that's long-term ROI that I think CEOs need to double-down on more." Matthew McConaughey

Remaining on the melody of the journey ahead, I was reading an excellent interview that Matthew McConaughey gave to CNBC on the weekend from his Airstream, sharing his fundamental life lessons he has learned in the Covid year which he thinks will be important for us all to consider – he’s typically quite thoughtful and reflective and it found his comments insightful and aligned with my philosophy of investment in change.

Don't go back to who you were before Covid.

As the world enters a post-pandemic reality, the actor and author says we should all be using 2020 to reevaluate what matters to us, rather than snapping back to who we were and what we believed before.

"When we turn the page, and we get our freedoms to go engage again, that we don't snap right back. That hopefully this last year when we were forced to reevaluate what the hell matters to us in our own lives, hopefully we will take those reevaluations out of this year and evolve as people, as individuals as well, that doesn't mean immediate change, but it does mean reflection.”

“Taking the time to reflect on how you have changed for the better over the past year will not only help you individually, but help understand your place in this new world.”

"The year 2020 was there for a reason, it was hardship for a reason, there was sacrifice for a reason, there are things to learn for a reason. Let's turn a page, not necessarily in the same chapter, let's turn a page and start a new chapter."

“Life’s barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you get good at.” Matthew McConaughey

Enjoy the Monday morning and take some time this week to look at the road you are on and ensure that it’s the path that will get you to where you plan to go.

“The future depends on what we do in the present.” Mahatma Gandhi

Be well & enjoy the moments

Derek