THANK YOU - 1,000 Days of Endless Metrics

It's been a journey

On January 1, 2020, I published my first newsletter post. Today is my 1,000th post, which is one for each consecutive day (and no misses!) since I began.

When I started this newsletter, I was really just looking for some way to write more about the things I was interested in learning about. I thought it would be fun to challenge myself to write each day and the whole not-missing-a-day thing seemed like a way to keep myself accountable for however long I could do it. Would it be a week? A month? A year? That long felt inconceivable. But, I just kept writing, day after day.

And, it was honestly easy for a long time because I simply enjoyed the process. Along the way, a bunch of people subscribed and I had so many good conversations both here in the comments and through one-on-one emails. I so appreciate that people have been willing to take the time to read my thoughts.

I wrote a lot of things to be proud of - some articles even went viral. Keeping the streak alive through days when life was crazy, or I was sick, or after a night out with friends at four in the morning, it didn’t matter, as long as I knocked out a little something to publish.

About six months ago, I had a moment for the first time in the two years since I had started writing where I thought, “Wow, I’m kind of tired.” But, once you are invested for 800+ consecutive days you don’t want to just drop something randomly. So, I thought, if I feel this way three months from now or six months from now I will find a good stopping point. Unfortunately, that feeling has remained.

Now, I could keep writing for the sake of keeping the streak alive. But, that isn’t core to the original idea, which was to write for myself and have fun. Keeping the streak alive without having fun or wanting to do it intrinsically because of some streak is just an ego trip.

I’m proud of what I’ve done. I would love to make some cheesy remark about how a lot of important things in life can’t be measured with metrics. I kind of just did. The unapologetically cheesy thing I don’t mind saying is that this is less about the end of something and more about the start of something else. What exactly? I have no idea. I may pick this back up and start a new streak; I may just write every so often; I may not write at all. I’m excited to have some time to step back and think about what is most exciting to do next.

If I have one lesson to take away from the process of writing this newsletter, it actually has nothing to do with money or investments. It has everything to do with the practice of being intentional.

By writing each day and formulating my thoughts, I’ve had the opportunity to reflect and to consider my own decision making. This, of course, has been in the context of the economy, and markets, and investing. But, more broadly, I’ve realized that it’s quite a rare thing to really consider the intention of our actions. I’ve had to do that because I always wanted to make sure that what I wrote was appropriate for readers who come from a wide range of financial circumstances.

I’ve become better though the act of being deliberate with my words and with the intention behind them. This practice of being intentional has been the practice of considering the many potential paths ahead of us, both seen and, to the best of we can anticipate, the unforeseen.

I don’t know what path lies ahead. But I know that the best choice for me now is to focus my efforts on the next fun adventure! Thank you for being here for this one : )

-Luke