I have been lightly posting lately, mostly because there is not a whole lot of news for us to sift through. I have however been reading posts. I try to focus mostly on tried-and-true posters but skim through all (all that are not blocked) and I keep getting a re-occurring theme of mental fatigue.
When I was much younger, I did a tremendous amount of long-distance bicycling. My average week would consist of riding to and from work or school, in the evenings I would participate in group rides of 35 to 50 miles and on weekends, I would ride another 70 to 100 miles each day. A few of my rides throughout the year would top out at 200+ miles in one day which was done alone or at most with 1 other person who was crazy enough to spend that much time on a bike.
At first, when I would do an extremely long ride, especially when I was alone, my thoughts could really stray. I could easily conjure up reasons why I should cut the ride short. "It was too hot", "it was too windy", "I had not trained hard enough", and so on, the negative thoughts would lead to me doubting in myself and leading to a crappy day on the bike.
As time progressed I figured out ways to overcome this demon. I would pick land marks along the way and set a goal to make it to each one in a certain amount of time, once I achieved that goal, I would set another and another until the ride was complete. Each success would lead to giving me a feeling of joy. I tried to set my goals to be achievable, by setting a series of small goals I could easily achieve the end result was to achieve the larger goal. (small steps if you will)
Don't get me wrong, there were still setbacks along the way, things I could not control, like a mechanical failure, a flat tire and even being struck by a delivery van. But these were things not in my control, and when they occurred, I had to reassess and determine how to deal with the situation.
My success in my bicycle riding did not come overnight, it did come however. My first 200+ mile ride ended after 12 hours and a call for someone to pick me up, I had talked myself into quitting 30 miles from the end. I had done all of the hard work and likely could have made it but my mind did not allow it. My best 200+ mile ride, I completed in a little over 9 hours. The difference between the 2 was not that I improved that much, in fact I was in far better shape on the first attempt than on my best attempt, the difference was controlling my thoughts and not allowing them to make poor decision for me.
The lessons I have learned in riding directly effect my investing life. I try to control my negative thoughts, and yes, I do have them, I just chose not to post them. Me being negative would just lead to others being negative and it spreads like a cancer over to others. This is definitely what has transpired here recently. A number of blow-ins have planted the seed of doubt, they are only looking to convert a few of the regulars to also post some negative thoughts and allow it to spread like wild. I have no room for negative people. For me I have blocked the new blow-ins and I have also blocked some of the regular posters who have decided to take the bait and post negatively, its not that I don't like these people, but negativity is worthless in my opinion, find a way to overcome it or decide to leave, don't embrace it as it will do nothing but eat you up.
Just like on the bike, there will be events that are beyond our control and beyond the control of our BOD. At these points we should re-assess the situation and set our goals accordingly.
I am still very excited about what has been achieved by Sayona even if it does not show up yet on the share price. I am still very confident that we are in the right place and the crappy summer will end soon.
I am grateful to all of you who have shared your time and passion over the last few years, the data that we have commonly gathered has been nothing short of brilliant. Keep searching, keep explaining, keep teaching, we all need it and most of all KEEP POSITIVE you will live longer and be happier.
GLTAH
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