I Have Done The Work, But Know I'm Not Finished-Do You?

I Know I Am Not Finished, Do You?

by: Brendan Magee

Two meetings I attended had a lot to do with a compliment I received last week. First the compliment: I was getting ready to ref a basketball game and my partner who I hadn't worked with in a while said, "Wow! You have lost a lot of weight." I got to tell you the compliment and the fact that I was not expecting it had me feeling pretty good about myself. For the past two years, I have been getting up at five in the morning and engaged in a pretty rigorous boxing and kick boxing class. The compliment was a sort of validation that others could see the difference the hard work has made.

Now the two meetings I mentioned. The first took place some 13 to 14 years ago. I was relatively new to reffing basketball games and the man in charge of giving out the assignments said, "The kids whose games you are going to be reffing are going to stay any where from 14 to 21 years old, but you are going to get older. If you want to keep doing this, you better stay in good shape."

The second meeting took place with my cardiologist. Going into a routine check up with my doctor, I felt confident I was in decent shape. I had been running, going to the gym, plus reffing games four nights a week. He showed me my cholesterol numbers and asked me if I wanted to be around to see my kids graduate college. I said yes, and he said, "Stop eating all the potato chips, soda and cheese steaks."

Two bits of advice directed towards helping me live the kind of life I wanted, but doing the work was pretty much all up to me. I could get some help like joining U.F.C. Gym and following their program (Truth be told, on my own, no way in the world would I be doing the workouts I am doing now. I am a walking endorsement for coaching in just about any thing that is important enough to you in your life).

I could sit down and talk to a nutritionist and learn how to read food labels and do a better job of understanding what I was putting in my mouth, but doing the work was up to me. Going from 214lbs to 192lbs and keeping it off for two years now wasn't going to happen unless I did the work. I also know that I am not finished. If I want to get to 185lbs, ref well in to my fifties (maybe even my sixties, if I can), and live to see my kids kids, I have to keep going.

I don't know if investors realize that their success with money and all the possibilities successful investing creates for their lives depends on their doing the work, work that isn't always easy and can't be done by any one else but them.

There is coming to an understanding of how markets work so that they can choose to invest their money the way they believe it should be invested. There is coming to an understanding of the illusions created by the brokerage industry to sell them products they don't need and will do more harm than the good they are promising. There is understanding that diversification is more than  than owning stocks, bonds, and cash.
There is coming to understand all the costs involved in investing and being able to account all of them and get rid of the ones that make the brokerage companies wealthy at the investor's expense.

The most difficult and maybe the most valuable lesson to learn is the vulnerabilities we as human beings have when it comes to investing. Learning what is behind our decisions and behaviors as investors and seeing how quickly we can start working in conflict with ourselves takes work. It also takes checking your ego at the door.

Creating a network of safeguards to make sure neither ourselves or the investment industry get the better of us is not easy. Clearing our schedules and giving the time to make sure our minds have the right kind of focus can be a little taxing. These issues require your time, effort, and energy. Nothing can replace doing the work only we can do. You are either going to be the solution or the problem.



Brendan Magee is the founder and president of Inevitable Wealth Coaching. With questions and comments, e-mail brendan@coachgee.com or call 610-446-4322.