The yo-yo behavior of the stock market seems at times to mimic my moods or is it visa versa? Just a few months ago the DOW was well over 18,000 and then in a flash it flirted with 15,000, a drop that pundits call a “correction”. Hmmm….maybe that’s what I should call my mood swings. Instead of flirting with depression, I’m just in a “correction”!
Why would changing the terminology make a difference? Well, the words I use when talking to myself affect my mood. When depressed, “hopeless, horrible, never, always” seem to be my adjectives of choice. This ruminating is always destructive. “Johnny, you are always doing these stupid things, you never can do this or that…”
So, instead of beating myself up, maybe I should try a stock market approach. I’m thinking it would go something like this…
“Johnny, things are going through a correction. You’re not feeling quite as good as you were. You ran into some obstacles lately. Seems like your life is going through a minor correction. Most corrections are actually healthy. They help you regroup, re-energize. Sort of like driving up a hill in the snow. Sometimes you have to go half way up, glide back down and then gun it to get to the top. So, that’s what’s happening now. You’re sliding back to gather momentum, to pick up the speed you need to make it up the hill. It’s a correction, not a collapse.”
Hey, I think it will work! Next time I’m feeling sad, I think I’ll label it as a correction!
Now, if only it would be that easy to get me feeling better about my stocks when they correct!