New Year 2009

Happy New Year 2009.

Like all of us, the new year is greeted with mixed emotions. A difficult year 2008 has passed and hopes for an easier 2009 is a unitive prayer. The financial meltdown has put many of us, older folks, at risk of losing work, jobs and business. For the younger among us, school starts tomorrow and their world is somewhat insulated from the angst that keep us from being totally happy as the year passes and another enters. In short, there will always be happy people and there will always be sad ones and of course, there will be those who have not yet decided what camp they want to be on.

This blog discusses the difference between work and toil. How we perceive what we do most hours of the day, as work or toil, disposes us to how much effort we will put into it, be it at the office, school or home.

We begin with a borrowed phrase from the Bible, "by the sweat of your face will you earn your food until you return to the ground". In order to eat, one has to work. If you are a farmer, the path is obvious. Plant and the yield is yours to have. If you are not a farmer, like most of us, then, we work to get a wage with which we will exchange parts thereof to buy food.

Work or toil? The difference is free will and passion. If what you do makes you happy, then it is work. If what you do, go against what you want to do, then it is toil. A simple explanation and that suffices.

A new year resolution : do what you like. If you are already there, Congratulations!
If you are not, could you look at what you do and decide how you could perceive the role you play with a little more positive bias? And if you really cannot do so, could you change jobs to something more to your liking. You will see that if you like the work before you, your energy and passion will be well directed. Every success, even little ones, will be greeted with enthusiasm and a smile, and rest assured the stress is also positive and therefore good. This is an important perspective to have - do what you like if you want to remain happy, healthy and stress free. You will either live longer or die happy. In any case, that is a good outcome.

I work in a fund management company. I seek to promote value adding investment ideas to help the clients achieve their financial objectives. If the client is a pension fund, an insurance company or an investment advisor, the satisfaction comes from their clients ie individuals (retail is the jargon description) benefitting from the pluses to their saving pool.This past year is stressful because all investment vehicles have lost money and therefore these individuals have bore the brunt of the asset value declines.Work then in 2009 may develop to become toil as I struggle to find good value adding ideas in investments in a world which does not want to play along. The invested clients are not all understanding and will likely lay blame on the loss making advice given. This is part of the moral hazard associated with this trade. But continuing to look for good ideas is important if I wish to remain in this line. I have a choice to make here, project a even worse 2009 and give up or look for silver lining among the dark clouds and begin there. These silver linings are likely to be found in : agriculture, commodities, social responsible investing e.g. climate change, sectors which are essential for our day to day living. The good news, there are enough ideas to build upon.

My daughter and son are students, and their main objective is to do well scholastically. Work or toil, they too have a decision. For them, each field of study enlarges their known world and will prepare them for the world to come.Perhaps it is not too early to begin thinking what they want to be and do when they grow up and once decided, their studies will take on a more purposeful direction. My daughter aspires to be a marine biologist and my son just wants to be rich. In both, what you know is important building blocks for their paths to be trodden.

My wife is a homemaker, and household work or chores, is a daily activity. She too has to make the decision of what to do, when to do and why they are to be done. When I come home and find her irritable, then I know that what she had been doing the day were chores. After these many years of marriage, I am able to list what are chores to her and what are not. The simple solution here is to delegate the chores to somebody else. Perfect would be to find one who does not mind doing them, either within the members of the family or to outsource to an au pair

The message here : choose the mindset for the task at hand. Choose the positive perspective if you wish to be happier. Yes it is a matter of choice. Make yours today as the first resolution of the year.