If you've ever been in my office, you've seen this image before:
I came across Carl Richards' work about eight years ago, and his piece "Focus" has been my mantra ever since. I love it, because it is simple, powerful, and applicable in every aspect of life.
Consider this the next time you find yourself worrying about something, or crippled with inaction by fear.
Does it matter? No? Then forget about it and move on.
Do you have control over it? No? Then there's nothing you can do about it anyway!
But when it (whatever it is to you) is within that Venn diagram sweet spot of being both something that matters and something you can control, that's where your FOCUS should be.
Naturally, this applies to your financial life, as well. Over the past few weeks, the market has been rocked by volatility. The uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 (aka the coronavirus) has led to fear over the direction of the market and the global economy.
Does it matter? Yes. Do you have control over it? Nope! As the diagram shows, let's put our focus elsewhere.
So what is it in our financial lives that matters, and we have control over? In a few short words: cash flow, risk, debt, and asset management.
FOCUS on those four areas. Everything else is just noise.