We Stand with You and We Will Get Through This, Together

We Stand With You & We Will Get Through This, Together

The year 2020 is shaping up to be a year of extremes:

• The highest point in the markets in February 2020
• The largest market downturn in a month during March 2020
• A national shutdown and mass quarantining due to a global pandemic, the Coronavirus
• A national movement sparking massive riots in several major cities around the country

And we're only in June. We haven't even gotten to the 2020 Presidential election yet! We haven't even hit our July 15th tax deadline!

As we all witness and are moved by what’s happening around us day after day, we can't help but feel that today's current events are the most extreme in history.

But let us not forget, we've been here before.

Let’s look at 1968: the year of assassinations, the Cold War, foreign war, the Civil Rights movement, some of the greatest riots in our nation’s history.

Then came 1969: anti-war protests continuing as several of my high school friends are killed in the Vietnam war.

I was just a kid during these years. But I remember feeling like conflict was raging everywhere I looked. To me, calling it a "difficult time in history" is an understatement. But we survived. Despite several bumps along the way, we came out of the other side of it better and went on to prosper over the next fifty years.

I am currently reading The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday. It draws from the philosophy of Stoicism to expand the idea that how we respond to life's obstacles is what defines us. Holiday breaks it down simply:

We don't control what happens to us - we DO control is how we respond to what happens to us.

There is no such thing as a setback, problem, or obstacle - there is simply opportunity.

It's a great read. I highly suggest it. And for me and my associates, it’s become a regular practice around our office: Control what you can control. Focus on what you can do.

Today, we can control our outlook and response to everything that's happening. We can focus on what our job and our responsibility are: supporting our community and our neighbors, and, above all, staying safe and healthy.

We want to keep the conversation going and answer your questions and concerns. Don't hesitate to reach out to us. We will get through this, together.

I leave you with this quote from Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelias, another drawn from Holiday's The Obstacle is the Way:

“Objective judgement,

now at this very moment.

Unselfish action,

now at this very moment.

Willing acceptance

-now at this very moment -

of all external events.

That's all you need."