Wise & Wealthy: Efficiency kills creativity and starting to invest

Welcome to Wise & Wealthy: A weekly newsletter full of proven ideas to become smarter and wealthier. I send this every Monday.

#38 – October 17, 2022

Note: Moving forward, Wise & Wealthy will only come out once a week on Monday (no longer every other Thursday).

Was this shared with you? Sign up here:


Wise: Efficiency kills your productivity

When I started blogging in 2015, I published two articles a week. I’ve kept that pace up for many years.

Sometimes people asked me, “Do you never run out of ideas?” To be honest, I asked myself that as well in the beginning.

My answer is, “No, you will not run out of ideas as long as you optimize your life for creativity.”

The way I see it, there are 2 phases of creativity:

  • Creation
  • Execution

One spends more time thinking or “incubating” an idea in the Creation phase. Afterward, when you’ve created the ideas, you can move into the Execution phase.

Separating your creative process into two phases helps you to come up with new ideas, and make sure you turn them into reality.

The biggest threat to our creativity is trying to be efficient during the Creation phase. When we aim to be too productive at all times, we lose our creativity.

↳ Why Too Much Efficiency Kills Your Creativity


Wealthy: The perfect time to start

The S&P500 is currently almost 25% lower than its all-time high. That’s a big drop to even the most mentally tough investor.

We’re dealing with stubborn inflation and the threat of a serious worldwide recession (if we’re not in one already).

Last week I was at a friend’s house who wanted to start investing in the stock market. He asked me, “What’s the best time to start investing?” He thought it was better to start when the uncertainty slows down.

“Maybe next year,” he said. While it’s always better to start investing today and not at some future date that will probably never come, it makes the most sense to start when prices are low.

Contrary to popular belief, it’s less risky to start investing when prices are low and we’re in a recession.

↳ The Perfect Time to Start Investing: When Prices are Low


One interesting thing

An important lesson from the writer Chuck Palahniuk (author of Fight Club and many other novels):

“Avoid making your reader feel foolish at all costs! You want to make your reader feel smart, smarter than the main character. That way the reader will sympathize and want to root for the character.” 

This is also true for every interaction with others. No one likes to feel foolish.


Thanks for reading! I hope you found this edition of Wise & Wealthy useful.

All the best,

Darius

Join the 7-day Stay Centered challenge

I’ve created a one-week email course that you can do together with a group. It’s called Stay Centered, and it will help you to reclaim focus and live a meaningful life.

When you’re centered, nothing can hurt you. You will have inner peace no matter what happens.

How to unlock Stay Centered

You can join the challenge for free. Every day, you’ll receive a short email with a small challenge that inspires you to live better. 

I highly recommend sharing it with your friends so you can go through the program together. I did it with my team, which was a lot of fun. 

Join here: dariusforoux.com/stay-centered

Read Next: