Your Survival Guy likes this from Peggy Noonan in The WSJ. This is a great way to get you into 2025. She writes:
The key to surviving the 21st century will be religious faith—you won’t get through it without it—and situational awareness. Always know where the exit is.
From a journalist friend this week: “You are never sorry you took a walk.” Another writer told me a few weeks ago of his New England Yankee mother, who believed there are no problems that aren’t made at least slightly better by a long walk, and none that are made worse.
People listen impatiently these days. Maybe it’s the cumulative effect of the media-interview culture of the past 50 years, which convinced people you look bright and in command if you interrupt; maybe the scrolling of the present has left us less able to hear something more sustained. Whatever the cause, don’t take it personally. We’re all being taught not to take in calmly and absorb.
Often people trying to tell you something use too many words, or jam in extraneous information, or forget their point as they take side trips. A genius, in conversation, will make many edifying digressions. Most people aren’t geniuses. A story is the Mississippi River. Don’t wander off and get caught in the tributaries. Stay on the river.
“Nothing is written.” This is from Robert Bolt’s screenplay of “Lawrence of Arabia,” in which he urges Ali not to be fatalistic—nothing is predetermined, human effort can change things. You have agency; you were given a brain for a reason. Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it, / Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. That’s a loose translation of Goethe.
Action Line: When you want to talk to someone who will listen patiently about your investment goals, email me at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com. In the meantime, click here to subscribe to my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter.
