Benefits of Boredom

While researching a book about maximizing productivity, I stumbled across a Business Insider piece entitled: 6 Scientific Benefits of Being Bored. I didn’t think it was relevant at first, but since I was, uhm, “bored,” I decided to read on. Glad I did.

Being hyper-productive and constantly busy is a badge of honor in our always-connected society. But experts say we miss out on a lot if we’re never bored. Why?  Because being bored can lead to some of our most original thoughts. In fact, there are even conferences devoted to boredom, including the International Interdisciplinary Boredom Conference and London’s annual Boring Conference. 

Before booking your flights to “Mundania,” however, let’s take a look at some of the biggest benefits to being bored occasionally:

1. Boredom can make you more creative. British psychologist Sandi Mann gave subjects various boring tasks to complete and then asked them to use their creative thinking. The subjects who had the most boring task — reading the phone book — came up with the most interesting uses for plastic cups, which is a standard test of divergent thinking. According to Mann, boredom encourages your mind to wander and helps you unlock more associative and creative ways of thinking. Hmmm.

2. Boredom lets you know when something is off. University of Louisville professor, Andreas Elpidorou, wrote in a psychology journal that boredom is a warning to ourselves that we are not doing what we want to be doing. When channeled properly, however, boredom can be great motivator that incents us to switch goals and projects, Elpidorou concluded.

3. Boredom makes you more goal oriented. In a process known as "autobiographical planning," a team of European and American researchers found that people most frequently plan and anticipate their future goals while daydreaming.

4. Boredom can make you more productive. Boredom often stimulates a region of the brain that’s responsible for "thought controlling" mechanisms and "thought freeing" activity. Researchers at Bar-Ilan University discovered that daydreaming doesn't harm your ability to succeed at an appointed task, but rather helps it.

Dr. Guy Baker, Ph. D, founder of Wealth Teams Alliance (Irvine, CA) told me recently that a certain amount of repetition is essential for becoming highly skilled in any endeavor. “Being disciplined, following a strategic philosophy and a tactical strategy can be repetitive. But it produces results over the long run. What causes failure is jumping from idea to idea and trying to outguess the market,” Baker added.

5. Boredom can make you a better person. Researchers in Ireland found that when we're bored, we lack perceived meaning in our activities and circumstances. They concluded that this induces us to search elsewhere to re-establish our self-meaning.

“It may appear to an outsider that the lack of change and staying the course is boring, and on some level it is,” explained Baker. “But to stay sharp and to anticipate the big picture and to recognize long term trends that provide opportunities requires one being alert and focused on what is happening around them.” That takes time and repetitive effort.

6. Boredom could be an essential ingredient for happiness. Almost a century before social media and mobile phones came onto the scene, philosopher Bertrand Russell mused on the makings of a happy life. Much of what he concluded is still relevant today.
"A life too full of excitement is an exhausting life, in which continually stronger stimuli are needed to give the thrill that has come to be thought an essential part of pleasure,” wrote Russell.

Conclusion 

As Jude Stewart explained in the Atlantic, “In our always-connected world, boredom may be an elusive state, but it is a fertile one. Watch paint dry or water boil, or at least put away your smartphone for a while. You might unlock your next big idea.”

As anyone who has ever run, bicycled or swum for long distances can tell you, one of the best ways to get into a flow state is to engage in a repetitive activity that blocks out all the distractions. I’ve found it even works when mowing the lawn.

#benefits of boredom #flow state  #creativity

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Not Your Grandfather's Recession

Our annual CPA/Wealth Advisor Confidence Survey™  shows that almost half of advisors (47%) expect a recession within the next 12 months--up from one third of advisors (33%) who thought so at this time a year ago. 

Now that we have an inverted yield curve on top of escalating trade tensions with China, slowing business investment and waning consumer confidence, it's only natural to feel our 10-year economic win streak will eventually run out. Sure, it’s a record-long period of prosperity, but Australia's economy has gone 28 straight years without a recession. Don’t think we’re on the brink of a contraction just because the actuarial tables suggest it.

As Jeanna Smialek explained in Friday's New York Times, many economists expect growth to weaken slightly over the next couple of years — without actually contracting — "and that distinction is crucial." Federal chair, Jerome Powell, said last week that “the most likely outlook for our economy remains a favorable one with moderate growth,” and “our main expectation is not at all that there will be a recession.” 

 
Also don't count on a recession call to be made before the 2020 elections--it takes anywhere from six to 20 months for a recession to be officially declared after it starts. According to Smialek, weak GDP growth isn't great news, but it's still counts as growth. That means it shouldn't be mistaken for a recession: 
 
"While economic growth has moderated only slightly so far, forecasters think America is headed for a deeper pullback. The economy expanded by 2.9 percent in 2018, and economists expect that pace to slow to 2.3 percent in 2019 before falling to 1.8 percent next year, based on the median in a survey by Bloomberg. Several particularly glum forecasters even expect the economy to shrink for one or two quarters in 2020," Smialek explained.

By the way, the U.S. no longer defines a recession as two consecutive quarters of shrinking output, although many economists and the news media use that rule of thumb—myself included. Turns out a committee at the National Bureau of Economic Research, made up of eight leading, economists, makes the official call on recessions. Apparently, they look at a wide range of data, not just GDP growth, including early indicators, like industrial production and a monthly growth series produced by the firm Macroeconomic Advisers. 
 
If you're keeping score at home, output growth slowed to a 2.0 percent annual rate in Q2/19 from 3.1 percent earlier in the year. According to early data, that is still a respectable number and consumer spending remains pretty robust. 

According to Smialek, if economic growth drops below its "sustainable level" — approximately 1.75 percent, based on demographic and productivity trends — it could, theoretically lead to higher unemployment and slower wage growth more broadly.

But many experts think it takes an outright recession to cause unemployment to rise across a range of industries in America. "Aside from one mild instance in the mid-1990s," wrote Smialek, "the headline jobless rate has not jumped without an actual downturn in recent business cycles." She said that's partly because a recession becomes far more likely once businesses start cutting jobs. Employers are reluctant to lay off workers until business gets pretty bad, because hiring and training is expensive. Once they are forced to cut their head count and workers start to lose their paychecks, those consumers pull back sharply on spending — making it a surer bet that the economy will shrink in earnest. 

Slow growth could actually cause higher unemployment without turning into a recession. While there’s no precedent for that in the United States, Australia has had several instances of rising unemployment in its 28-year-old economic expansion, without falling into a recession. 

Bottom line: It may come down to perception rather than reality. As my friend Phil Palumbo of UBS Wealth Management likes to say: "If enough people and businesses think we're headed for a recession, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If enough people think we’re okay, we’ll stay okay.” 

  
Conclusion 

 
There are opportunities in every market climate and every economic cycle. I am confident that you and your clients to be able to sniff them out. As Warren Buffet always says: "Stocks are the only thing people never buy when they're on sale." Same goes for capital improvements, hiring and R&D. 

#Recession #consumer confidence #wealth advisor confidence

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Why Introverts Make Great Leaders (and Advisors)

Last week’s post (What’s Your Charisma Score?) generated a fair amount of feedback as expected. But, let’s be clear about one thing: Being an extrovert is not synonymous with being charismatic. As several of our clients explained to the national media last week, introverts may actually have an advantage and it’s also what makes them excellent advisors.

The power of self reflection

While many charismatic people are extroverts who love the spotlight and get energized by having people around, they can also be afraid to confront their own thoughts. Introverts, by contrast, have the courage to dive deep into their own psyches, knowing that doing so, while painful at time, will only make them stronger.

In just a minute you’ll see why this is important.

“’Broken glass’ days are refreshing and can rejuvenate your mind,” observed Dr. Guy Baker, PhD, Founder of Wealth Teams Alliance (Irvine, CA). “These kinds of days are best done in silence with a pen (not technology). Go to a quiet place. Write down your thoughts and get them out of your head. Everyone needs some time away from noise. Putting your thought on paper makes them real,” added Baker, a recent winner of the insurance industry’s lifetime achievement award.

 
Matt Topley, Chief Investment Officer of Fortis Wealth (Valley Forge, PA), agreed. “The hardest thing for people to do is to really know themselves; it’s even harder to change themselves.  A lot of the things we blame co-workers for are usually issues within ourselves.  Your success in life is going to be about collaboration and relationships, so understanding psychology will give you an edge in both communicating with others and communicating with yourself,” added Topley, a recent winner of the Philadelphia Inquirer, “Influencer in Finance” award. “This knowledge will let you communicate with empathy and sincerity. Both of these traits are essential for being a successful advisor, but often lacking in today’s always-connected, device-driven society.”

Value of working independently

While working in a team can be invigorating, it’s usually less efficient than working independently, explained Baker. “I like to be able to control my own schedule. I don’t like being second-guessed. I like taking responsibility for my success and for my failure. I learn from my mistakes. If I am on a team, others may make the mistakes, and I have to pay the price. I would rather pay the price for errors when I make them.”

Topley concurred: “While extroverts need people around them all the time in order to feel alive, introverts need time alone from time to time. If you’re an introvert, try breaking up your week into smaller chunks of down-time in which you are 100-percent alone. That way you can focus completely on deep thought and reflection.” 

Listening skills

Whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert it’s very important to think before you speak, observed Baker. “If you’re the type of person who just reacts to what someone has said without processing the information or the consequence of a hasty response; that’s a sign of immaturity and often narcissism. Good listeners are always measured by their reaction to what is said. Poor listeners are so intent on what they want to say, they miss the message.”

Topley agreed with Baker that listening is an art. “You can be a quiet listener or an active listener. When someone else is talking, the key is to be actively listening to what they’re telling you, not thinking about what you are going to say next. A good listener is tuned in to their relationship as opposed to being so interested in what they want to say that they end up missing the speaker’s message.”

Conclusion

If you are introverted, both Baker and Topley say don’t let the personality trait be an impediment to your career growth. “It’s a myth that introverts are not good networkers or effective salespeople,” said Topley. “Some of the best are introverts by nature. Whether you’re an introvert, extrovert or somewhere in between, Topley said you need to get out of your comfort zone on a weekly, if not daily, basis “to meet new people and to experience new situations inside and outside your office.”

Great words of advice, whether you prefer having lunch by yourself or with a gang of co-workers.

#Dr. Guy Baker #Matt Topley #extrovert #introvert #Power of introverts

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