You change more than you can imagine!

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” ― Leo Tolstoy

I grew up always hoping I could become a scientist, a famous physicist who could change the world by proposing a powerful theory like Relativity. Quantum physics intrigued me during my childhood. My life mission and dream as a teenager were to excel in my study so that I could get a scholarship to study Physics.

However, after I finished my SPM ( O level), my ambition changed, I thought medicine might be my calling. The fulfillment and excitement of becoming a doctor were simply irresistible. Without realizing the colossal impact of medicine on my life, I opted for medicine as my life career during my university application.

At the age of 21 years old medical student, I made up my mind to become a hematologist. But 2 years later, after completing my elective posting in the neurosurgical department in Taiwan, my mind changed again. How our brain and mind work amazed me. Neurosurgery was the only option I had in medical school.

Circumstances changed again during my junior years, I learned that the surgical training path was much tougher and longer than taking up internal medicine, eventually, I chose to be a physician. Over years, I change more than I can imagine.

End-of-History illusion

In 2013, Harvard psychologists Daniel Gilbert and Jordi Quoidbach proposed what they termed as “end-of-history illusion”. They claimed, all of us, as normal people, have a tendency to underestimate the magnitude of future change despite knowing that we have changed a lot in the past.

They explained:” At every stage of life, people make decisions that profoundly influence the lives of the people they will become— and when they finally become those people, they aren’t always thrilled about it. Young adults pay to remove the tattoos that teenagers paid to get, middle-aged adults rush to divorce the people whom young adults rushed to marry, and older adults visit health spas to lose what middle-aged adults visited restaurants to gain. Why do people so often make decisions that their future selves regret?”

You change your lifestyle

Time is a powerful force that transforms people’s preferences, reshapes their values, and alters their personalities. For example, we tend to change our lifestyles when we have more money in our bank accounts over time. It is hard not to upgrade when you see everyone around you is doing it.

You promise yourself you won’t budge even you earn more money in the future, unfortunately, we change more than we can imagine. We find excuses to change, thinking that we change for the better. As I mentioned in my previous post, there is no way your income can catch up with your lifestyle if you keep on changing to a more expensive lifestyle every time you make more money.

Don’t underestimate the magnitude of those changes. Every moment you think about buying a bigger house or a car, ask yourself are those changes necessary and adding value to your life? If the answer is NO, don’t budge!

No matter how big a house you have and how trendy a car you drive, the only thing you can take with you at the end of the day is your conscience.

You change your goals and desires

Achieving financial freedom and independence is a long path. But things around you change including yourself. Your life perspective and desires change all the time without you noticing it. It is alright to admit that you actually do not know what you want in the future. But you must understand for an investing plan to work, you have to stick to your plan, rain or shine!

Charlie Munger once said:” The first rule of compounding is to never interrupt it unnecessarily!” Even though it is hard, remember that you shouldn’t change your investing strategy, you must keep on doing the same thing over and over again! Don’t go in and out of the market, stay invested at all times. Have one proven investing strategy that works in mind and stick to it! Don’t change!

People around you will tell you how good bitcoin is. They are convinced Stock A has broken the resistance point and foresee it will jump 50% in the next 2 weeks. Don’t listen to these rumours, stick to your own plan and don’t change your strategy!

Conclusion

It is a fact we change over times more than we can imagine although we have a tendency of underestimating those changes. We might change for the better, unfortunately, in terms of financial planning and lifestyles, we often change due to peers’ pressure and influence. And more often than not, we change for worse!

There are a few things in life you should stick to and never change no matter how the circumstances have changed – investing strategy that works, your values and principles, your home, and YES- your wife!

Addendum: Book I’ve recently read

Every doctor should read about Dr. Paul Kalanithi’s book ” When Breath Becomes Air”. His story of fighting terminal cancer during his medical training/ residency is inspiring. We doctors face death almost every day , but unfortunately we seldom look at own possible mortality straight. By learning about death and life, I become a better person and hopefully you too. You can buy the book HERE.