Your Happiness Project: Don’t follow the stock market too closely.

I’m working on my Happiness Project, and you should have one, too! Everyone’s project will look different, but it’s the rare person who can’t benefit. Join in -- no need to catch up, just jump in right now. Each Friday’s post will help you think about your own happiness project.

This has been a crazy week in the financial world. What’s happening in the economy has consequences for everyone – for some people, very directly and immediately, for others, over the long term.

But no matter what it means to you, it’s unnerving to see those stock market numbers crash down through new barriers, even if they climb back up.

On Monday, I kept checking the Dow number throughout the day. I realized that this activity wasn’t useful, and it certainly wasn’t happiness-inducing, but I couldn’t resist. For the rest of the week, though, I managed to restrain myself, and I didn’t check the numbers until the end of the day.

I drew a lesson from the contrast: don’t keep checking the numbers. I’d been stoking my anxiety for no good reason. After all, I’m not going to respond to the information in any immediate way, and if my goal is to be a well-informed citizen, I can do that just as well by checking at the day’s end to see what happened. Similarly, I’m avoiding reading or listening to the wild doomsday predictors. No one knows what will happen. There’s value to reading a thoughtful analysis of the economic situation, but I don’t need to spend my time listening to not-particularly-well-informed people speculate on various catastrophe scenarios.

The happiness challenge posed by the economic situation is severe, so it’s a good idea not to add to the problem by constant, purposeless monitoring.

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I always find interesting material when I poke around Pick the Brain.

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Interested in starting your own Happiness Project? If you’d like to take a look at my Resolutions Chart, for inspiration, just email me at grubin, then the “at” sign, then gretchenrubin dot com. No need to write anything more than “Resolutions Chart” in the subject line.

Comments

[Helen]

Hi Gretchen!

I work in Corporate Finance, so I find myself in a situation where I do have an immediate reason (and indeed a requirement) to monitor.

Being in this situation, recent events have been, in a strange way, a wonderful opportunity to practice letting go of things I can't control and also of practicing being less attached...to my job, to my shares, to my current lifestyle, to my expectations of the future.

I'm trying to get better at taking a deep breath and letting it all go, and remembering that even if the worst happens, I have many dear friends who have promised to join me in growing our own food, raising a few goats or whatever it takes to get by! (And everything that I've learned about happiness indicates that this wouldn't make me significantly less happy than I am right now.)

So, for any readers who are - like me - in a situation where they have to monitor, I hope you too can find an opportunity to practice making peace with the things you can't control.

[:O]

Well, to put things in perspective, we've always had economic crises once every so often (check American history)...it's like a cycle that goes up and down, up and down. This is when we're down again.

(That might be easy for me to say, since I've been generally unaffected.)

[Doug Haverkamp]

Hello Gretchen,
I've enjoyed your blog for awhile and I could relate to what you were feeling and how you were acting during the past weeks.
I've found that my morning meditations have been more important than ever during these "anxious" days. That time allows me to let me know what really is important, namely my relationships, and that at least allows me to get back to my square when I drift off to anxiety.
I've been using this time to grow spiritually, trusting God to take care of the things I can't (the world) and as the serenity prayer says, change the things I can!
Thanks for your work, Gretchen. I have really enjoyed, "The days are long, but the years are short".

[Dr. Barbara Becker Holstein]

Dear Gretchen, I also agree with you. Focusing continuously on what is making us nervous does not good to the mind, body, or spirit. In fact, it can weaken us so we don't have the strength we need to make good clear decisions and live our daily lives to the fullest. In my writings, such as The Enchanted Self, A Positive Therapy, and Recipes for Enchantment, The Secret Ingredient is YOU!, I stress how important it is to hold on to our personal potentials and let them rebirth themselves again and again, perhaps first in daydreaming and vision work, and then later as new outgrowths of ourselves that are going to have all the energy, magnetism and life that we need to keep creating a full and happy life for ourselves. All my best, Dr. Barbara Becker Holstein

[Shanel Yang]

I'm not checking the numbers -- but my boyfriend is! And, he was giving me the blow-by-blow till I asked him to please stop doing that. Then, I asked him why he was following it anyway since he, too, wasn't going to do anything about it in terms of changing his portfolio either. Long discussion later, he realized all the reasons he thought he had for following it were phantom and so he stopped! : )

[Mark W.]

Nice post Gretchen. I truly understand now what is meant by risk tolerance. Trying to :) !

[Dave]

Totally agree. We need to focus on what we want to be happy. Focusing on 'what is', if it is anything less than what we want, won't do us any favors. Great reminder!

[Arturo Gonzalez]

I don´t track the Dow, but watching the downward spiral of oil prices puts a smile on my face.

Art Gonzalez
http://www.squidoo.com/quantumknights

[anya]

Good advice, Gretchen, which I've actively been forcing myself to follow these last weeks. I only check the headlines once a day. Even so, panic and fear was eating away at me. I am directly effected since I have been retired for years living on the investments made with money earned during 25 years of working. This week I finally accepted that I have to not only hoard my liquidity, which certainly isn't what I wish it were, but also cut down my expenses and figure out a way to make some extra cash. I cancelled my vacation rental on the ocean this summer and for the first time since my divorce in July, I'm really looking at my financial life and taking control of the parts I can control. As for the other parts, I'm just hoping for the best but I don't think about it much because I have no control in that area, and I'm not going to sell stocks at fire sale prices. I definitely feel more happiness and peace in knowing exactly where I stand, what I can do and letting go of the areas where I can do nothing.

[Mer]

Gretchen, good advice. Investing is a long-term proposition. Paying attention to the Dow multiple times a day only increases your anxiety and means little in the long run, because you're focusing on a single data point on a large curve.

What people are failing to realize is that now is a good time to invest in the market (in funds, not single stocks, please) because you're buying shares at a discounted price. When the market makes it through this correction, your investment will make more money IN THE LONG RUN.

People who are selling their investments are making a huge mistake. Remember the old saw "Buy low, sell high"? If you divest yourself now, you're selling low.

In short: Focus on long-term gains, and you'll sleep better.

[MJ]

I'm getting more and more turned off by the media - the hard Left, hard Right, and the poorly educated in general. None produce well thought out, intelligent, analytical news. But you can find all of the hysteria and doomsday scenarios that you want.

We need to put our consumer power behind, and demand and support, thorough quality information free of agenda or "CAR FIRE AT 7!" sensationalism. It's out there, but it's too rare.

[Evan Young]

It's important to keep in mind that "the market" is not a rational entity, it's daily changes 'mean' very little (if anything). I actually wish that the main stream media would stop reporting on it.

And don't watch TV news, they have been leading with the 'market crisis' for weeks. If you need a media fix, read a reputable newspaper or good quality news sites/blogs.

Evan