The Element of Understanding It’s Never Too Early or Too Late To Begin Or Do Something - Part 3

We go through life making assumptions.

One of the assumptions we make is that it’s too early or too late to do something.

Most times, this is not true.

Is it ever too early or too late to show we care?

Is it ever too early or too late to get involved?

Is it ever too early or too late to get past breakdowns in communication?

If we sit and think, it is never too early or too late for most things.

For example, it’s never too early or too late to use tools to become healthier, or to improve our job prospects.

It's never too early or too late to use tools to become better investors; or to overcome limiting behaviors, fears and anxieties.

In my post The Element of Choosing the Right Tools for Your Path and Its Hope for Helping You Put One Foot in Front of the Other (which was inspired by a conversation with my friend Majella), I shared some examples of tools we can use to tackle these different areas.

I told you about a memory tool which I used to remember an alphanumeric number, and another memory tool I used to remember Buckminster Fuller’s name.

I told you about career tools such as Richard Bolles’s Flower Tool and Resume Tips from Fortune 500 companies and the Dare To Share tool. 

If you are at a career crossroads, I am excited about what you will gain by using these tools.

I especially recommend Richard Bolles’s Flower Tool from his book What Color is Your Parachute?

In The Element of Choosing the Right Tools for Your Path and Its Hope for Helping You Put One Foot in Front of the Other, I also pointed you in the direction of tools to improve your state of mind.

You will agree with me, it is never too early or too late to improve our state of mind.

To become calmer and more rational and more mature.

The more mature we become, the better the choices we will make.

Becoming a calmer, more rational and more mature person, requires us to learn from experience, and from the choices we have made, and the results of those choices.

It is never too early or too late to do that.

Experience is a valuable teacher, and it is never too early or too late for its lessons.

I have learned many different lessons from experience, and I do not regret a single one of them.

My post 4 Lessons Learned from Spinning in the Rain tells you about the lessons I learned from my car accident in 2010.

My post If Life is So Good, Why Do I Feel So Sad tells you about the lessons I learned from my clinical depression.

And my post How I Lost a Thousand Grand on Donuts tells you about the lessons I learned from trying to be a bottom-fisher in the stock market.

“What is bottom-fishing, Minoo?” you may ask.

Bottom fishing is buying a stock when it drops in price.

I learned about bottom fishing from The Essential Buffett, a book about Warren Buffett, who is recognized as the world’s most successful investor.

Bottom-fishing sounds deceptively easy.

Buy a stock when its price drops.

After reading about bottom fishing in The Essential Buffett, I thought to myself, “Hmmmm…..as soon as some well-known stock drops in price, I will buy it.”

My chance came with Krispy Kreme.

One day when I booted up my computer and pulled up Yahoo Finance, Krispy Kreme was in the news because of a bad quarter.  It’s price dropped 50% that day.

I myself hadn’t tried a Krispy Kreme donut yet, but their donuts were the talk in homes and offices everywhere.

“Great, here’s my opportunity to bottom-fish,” I thought.

I jumped onto a trading site and quickly made a purchase of Krispy Kreme stock.

Was I in for a lesson and a shock?

Krispy Kreme continued to struggle with anemic growth and profits, and its stock declined by another 50%.

I lost half the money I invested in Krispy Kreme before a year was out.

But now that I've told you what I lost, let's look at what I gained.

I immediately matured as an investor.

Aristotle said,“The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet”

Yes, my Krispy Kreme investment was a bitter experience, but when I got past that, I understood I was in a better place.

Are you prepared to mature as a result of an experience?

It’s never too early or too late to do that.

If we don’t mature, we will have the same bad experiences again and again.

If I had been hell-bent on pursuing bottom-fishing as a strategy, I might have suffered additional humiliating losses, and I might have given up on the stock market altogether.

That would have been regretful, because the stock market has served me well overall. 

What is maturity?

Maturity is not to be confused with cynicism and hopelessness.

Maturity is becoming wise to the lessons of experience and to sound advice, no matter the source - without losing hope for the future.

Maturity is learning that the long-term is all that matters.

Over the long term, we can correct our errors, and make the right decisions.

It is never too early or too late to start doing that.

To become mature, one of the things we need to learn is patience.

Another thing we need to learn is moderation.

We don’t need to have everything right now - and in the largest quantities and the biggest size possible.

It is easy to fall into the habit of wanting the latest and the biggest and the smartest and the most exhilarating thing - and wanting it right now.

If we have an ATV, and a cooler ATV comes out, we want it right here and right now.

If we have a kitchen with this or that amenity or finish, and something better comes out, we want that as soon as possible.

We want a bigger house, we want a better address.

We want to be more successful, and smarter, we want a perfect body.

If we have a medical problem, we want to be cured of it - right now.

There was a time in my life when I wanted to have a pencil thin figure like one of my friends.

So I counted calories, and worked out 7 days a week, because I thought she looked fantastic, and I wanted my body to look like hers.

Guess what – even before I had gotten down to her weight and size, my face became thin and gaunt, and I started to look sickly.

I ran into someone who hadn’t seen me in a while, and you would think I would hear, “Wow, Minoo – you look terrific – what’s your secret?”.

Instead, what I heard was “My goodness, Minoo! Whatever happened to you?  Have you been sick recently?”

When sanity returned, I started focusing on eating right (with a little help from my friends) and getting enough exercise, sleep and rest. And I knew I was on the right path.

Yes, it’s never too early or too late to learn patience and to learn moderation.

Thanks to learning patience and moderation, I was able to resist the temptation to jump on the real estate bandwagon with everyone else in the years 2003 – 2007.

And when the economy crashed in 2007 and 2008, I was able to hang tight and stay the course.

My post Yoga for Investors tells you about the approach I adopted, after I put my Krispy Kreme debacle behind me.

Speaking of approaches, there is no single approach that will work for everybody.

If you read my post, Secrets of the Super Models, you will see that different models follow different diet and exercise regimens.

Because there is no one size fits all approach, we should be open to alternate approaches.

If nothing has worked so far, it is never too early or too late to consider alternate approaches and options.

My post The Element of Multiple Paths and Its Hope for Understanding There are Solutions and Answers Out There highlights several examples of situations where a desired outcome was achieved by taking a different path.

Are you afraid to take a different path?

To do something in a different way from what you are used to?

Well then, I say to you, it’s never too early or too late to give up your inhibitions.

You may discover it is the only thing standing between you and a great new chapter in your life.

Read my post The Element of Release from Inhibitions and Its Hope for The Flowering of Undiscovered Talents for inspiration.

Before I end this post, I have one more nteotl (never too early or too late) to touch upon....and that is..........drumroll, please.........

It is never too early or too late to wish you all a very Merry Christmas.   

Merry Christmas to all of you and Happy Holidays……Minoo

As always, thanks for reading, and have a great day and week…..M….a Pearl-Seeker like you.  Thanks to Ajay and Audrey for their comments on my last post, and thanks to the rest of you for your votes and pins.  Merry Christmas and see you next week.

P.S. If you want to read Christmas wishes of years past, you can do so here, here and here.