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Weekly Caffeine – Investing as a Spiritual Practice

I'm not expecting myself to want to run, or not to react, or to want to keep digging deeper. I expect that.

David Sherry
2 min read
Weekly Caffeine – Investing as a Spiritual Practice

For the past few years, I've been deeply interested in the crypto markets, which I believe is building a fundamentally new "internet of value."

This will have huge implications for how we work and live online, and it's fascinating. I've written for a long time about the creator economy, about communities, and how new media and art change us.

In 2012 I had been aware of the way startups were changing the world and our culture.

From 2017 on, I've felt the same way about crypto.

But this past week, the entire market went red.

Every project and token valued in public dropped 50+% in value within 7 days.

Crypto is a nascent industry that is just emerging, and while this volatility is normal, it's also difficult not to react emotionally to this type of swing.

Fear and doubt creep in, and you are challenged not just externally but internally.

And this is why I love investing. I love investing because it's one of my favorite spiritual practices.

Every time I buy a share or a token, I place a vote on something I believe in. Or I test my understanding of human nature, psychology, value, technology, insight, and philosophy.

It tests my clarity; it tests my ability to look past the noise.

And it tests my patience.

Patience and expectation are interlinked.

Patience is about giving time and flexibility to your expectations. You allow things to play out, and you're not concerned with the immediate.

If you're impatient, you are impatient because you expect something now.

Your expectations about how something should be aren't being met.

So how do you have patience? How do you relax expectation?

And do you become patient, while also not becoming lazy?

You make a primary choice and many secondary choices.

A primary choice is a direction that you have for your life. It's something that you want for its own sake.

A primary choice is that you want to sing, or you want to give back to others, or that you want to be a strong contributor to your local politics.

A primary choice has no justification. Primary choices underly almost everything we do. They are the bedrock direction driving our motivation.

We can't help but not work towards them.

Secondary choices are in service of our primary choice. A secondary choice is taking voice lessons, volunteering at a shelter, or running for office.

We make secondary choices not because we want to but because they are in service of something more important to us.

Secondary choices are the work, the sweat, the uncomfortable actions that lead us to have success in the primary choices of our choosing.

It's not that we want to put on our shoes at 5 am to go for a run...

But because we want a life full of strength and flexibility, we do it in service of that vision for who we are.

I'm patient because the day-to-day choices aren't as important as the broader direction I'm pursuing.

And because they're less important, I'm less reactive to them. I'm not expecting anything from them.

I'm not expecting myself to want to run, or not to react, or to want to keep digging deeper. I expect that.

But in the long run, I am patient working towards my goal, instead of giving in to what is secondary.


Hey, thanks for reading. Tomorrow I have an interview with a new coach for my interview podcast which will be a fun one. You can see a past episode with a great sales coach on getting comfortable with sales.

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