It's the PATH that matters not the LEVEL

What a miserable time to restart this blog.

I am very miserable these days. Haven't quite felt so miserable in quite a few years and I am wondering why.

Analyzing my situation carefully, if I had presented to myself my current situation (at least the broad contours of it) say six months back - i wouldn't have been delighted but wouldn't have been surprised. In fact I would have said this is exactly how I expect things to pan out and would have taken the situation on balance. If so, why am I so very miserable?

The answer lies in the path things take to reach their current level. It does not matter where things are, what matters more is how things got there. When as in my case, you get very close to realising something very important and you get pulled down at the last moment you get miserable - notwithstanding the fact that six months back you did not really expect to achieve that goal. That is not important. What is important is that you were taken up and up by the situation and then brought down. It is that emotional roller coaster that you've had makes one (and that has made me) miserable.

To completely change field, I have often wondered why were investors so miserable when markets crashed May-June last year or late February-early March this year. If the market came down from 14000 to 10000 - so what? The market is still up more than 3 times from its low a few years back - i would have thought if you were told in say June 05 that the market would be at 10000 in June 06, most people would have gladly taken that - in fact put more money in. Then why do you hear stories of 'blood on the street' etc. Again, its the path that matters.

So how do I get out of the misery I find myself in? Simple, by making my heart focus on the level and stop thinking about the path. Sounds simple ain't it? Yeah it does sound simple, I have been at it for the past few hours and it sounds like any other theory!

As they say, in theory there is no difference between theory and practice, in practice - that's a whole different ball game!

That's it for now and it's good to be back!