Four Things Running Taught Me About Investing

I like to run to the gym every morning before I head into the office. I not only feel healthier from doing it, but definitely benefit from greater productivity during the day, and have found it has given me many insights on investing too.

Here are four key takeaways that have really helped me...

One: Doing & Consistency

It can be really hard to start running. Especially if you’ve taken a good amount of time off and have gotten out of the habit. Then it can seem daunting. Yet, if you want to get better at anything, you get better by doing. Those couple extra pounds from Thanksgiving and the end of year holidays aren’t just going to go away by themselves. You get and stay in shape by practicing exercise consistently. If you want to perform better in a marathon, then you practice running, not lifting heavy weights or reading books or watching YouTube videos. If you want to get better at investing, then you start investing. You keep up that habit and you get better at making good decisions and picking great investments, and managing those assets.

Two: Diversification

If you are a little bit of a geek about anything then you know that the real leaps are found in the details. You can do the same run, at the same pace, for the same time and distance every day. It can help you maintain a little, but at some point you hit a plateau. You can also get really thrown off if the city decides on an extensive construction project right on your running path for the next 18 months. If you are even a little bit of a fitness geek you know that improving your overall capabilities, and hitting your full potential has a lot to do with breaking things up to strengthen your body and build new strengths in different areas. So, instead of just doing the same run all year round, every year, you might do a jog one morning, quick sprints the next, a cross country run, or even mix in swimming or cycling, or a few squats. Together this can strengthen your ligaments and joints to prevent injury, improve your overall speed, and prepare you to compete at an even higher level, even if you aren’t familiar with the terrain. This definitely applies to investing. Investing is a lot safer and more profitable, and your portfolio can carry you so much further, through any market changes, if you are diversified.

Three: Priorities

What you prioritize gets done, and gets your best input. Everything else tends to suffer, or at least come in a distant second. I like to hop up out of bed, read my goals, and go running. It keeps me focused, and keeps me on target. Running is key to helping me achieve all my other goals. I know if I just put it off till I find some free time, I’ll probably never find time to get it in. Because we are so busy, and there are so many convenient excuses. By the end of the work day you are mentally and physically worn out. Sometimes it’s just a struggle to flip through enough channels on the TV to find anything worth watching. So, I prioritize my big goals, and I run first thing, and I invest. If you put off investing till you have extra time or extra money, it isn’t going to get done.

Four: A little Bit Every Day Helps

You aren’t going to get super ripped from running just one morning or get bigger and stronger from a single workout. You might start feeling better after a couple days, but you may not see tangible results on the scale for more than a couple weeks - just as your current results are the product of what you’ve been doing for the past few weeks and months. However, even just a little bit every day can start producing some amazing changes over time. There is a substantial snowball effect. The same goes for our financial health as does for the physique. If we just get up, go right into the office, grind it out, and go home to bed, we can find the years just slipping by with nothing to really show for that time and effort. That can feel soul crushing. Physically we can change the script by walking or running just for a few minutes every day. Financially we can flip this dynamic by dedicating a little bit of each day’s earnings to our big vision and investing. Rather than working all day and having nothing left by the end of the weekend after getting paid and doing the bills, and splurging on cheat food to make ourselves feel better, if we dedicated a percentage of our hourly, daily, and weekly earnings to investing, it would really add up. Take it right off the top. Every hour say, “I’m giving the first 12 minutes of this pay to invest.” Set up direct transfer of that money to your self-directed IRA right on payday so you don’t get tempted to blow it and watch the snowballing growth in your investment accounts.

So, run, walk, or just take a couple steps in the right direction today. The results will be astonishing.

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay