The Fear of Wasting Your Life
It’s not graffiti. It’s a warning.
I used to drive past this every time I came to Columbus.
"The fear of wasting your life."
It stopped me cold. Every time.
That one line did more damage than a full blown existential crisis. Because I knew exactly what it meant.
When I was a teenager, I almost died. It could’ve ended right there. Friends tried to make me feel better by saying, “At least you really lived.”
But the truth was, I hadn’t.
My life hadn’t even started.
That wasn’t the first time I heard someone say that line.
When we were kids, one of our friends died playing Russian roulette. He was thirteen years old. People at the funeral said the same thing: “He really lived.”
No, he didn’t, he never had the chance.
That phrase—meant to comfort—always sounded like a lie. It’s what we say to make peace with lost potential.
But all it does is expose our fear: not of dying, but of never really living.
I’ve seen that fear play out. I’ve watched people who were already dead at 30. They clock in, clock out, and die quietly over decades. I’ve also met people who are fully alive at 70—still creating, still learning, still becoming something new.
That’s the kind of person I am.
I came into this world swinging, and I’ll go out the same way. Not out of pride—but out of necessity. It’s the only way I know.
I’ll probably be near death talking about a comeback. Not because I’m in denial—but because I refuse to surrender.
I don’t know how…
When life punches me in the mouth, I don’t retreat, I reframe, I respond, I find a reason to keep moving forward.
Most people waste their life waiting for the perfect time to start living. I’ve seen how that story ends and I don’t plan on being part of it.
The message on that bridge isn’t graffiti. It’s a warning.
We should take it personally.
Steve Jobs once said, "Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life." He was right.
Here’s one of those choices:
If you knew giving up your favorite food would save your life, you’d do it. It wouldn’t be easy, but the answer would be clear.
Now apply that same logic to trading.
What if you cut the habits that are quietly killing your progress?
The FOMO buys. The “just one more” trades. The urge to short strength and catch every falling knife.
You can let go of those. I know, because I did.
It took me years—and a pile of losses—but I got there.
You don’t have to wait that long, you can learn from my mis steps.
You’re closer than you think.
Only if you take it personally.
Don’t live in fear of missing out.
The dollar has lower to go. It’s been making lower highs since late 2022, and if we break below the April 2021 lows, the long cycle that began in 2011 is likely over.
That has major implications.
Gold, copper, oil, soybeans—all were crushed during the strong dollar run. But since 2020, they’ve turned. Gold has been grinding higher. Commodities surged from 2020 into Q1 2022, then stalled.
That pause? It’s normal. Cycles rotate and leaders rotate. The trade doesn’t show up all at once.
Global liquidity hasn’t been bad—but it hasn’t been great either. The dollar falling has helped boost global liquidity. It is already starting to show up in liquidity indicators.
That’s the setup.
The moment it does, emerging markets, commodities, and assets like gold and bitcoin could all accelerate.
The macro view sets the backdrop and our job is execution. Know your timeframes, set your stops and pick your ticker. Whether you’re waiting for alerts or running full automation, your discipline matters more than your prediction.
Don’t waste the cycle trying to predict the peak or bottom. Take the trade, size it right, and let the trend confirm what you already know.
This next move won’t be subtle. Be ready.
📊 This Week's Market Heat Check — From AAO Research
🟢 Leaders:
Junior Gold Miners (GDXJ): +49.05% YTD — Still leading the board.
Poland (EPOL): +47.68% — Quiet strength in Eastern Europe.
Gold Miners (GDX): +46.77% — Big flows continue.
Chile (ECH): +30.79% — Latin America catching a strong bid.
DAX (Germany): +33.41% — European rotation in full swing.
These are all unleveraged ETF trades.
Our options trades?
They’ve 10x’d these returns.
Join us.
For subscribers our weekly returns are here. 👇 (Audio fixed)
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You should be a life coach Jason!
What you wrote reminds me of that line from Charlie Munger "invert, always invert". If you want to know how to succeed (in any discipline), first figure out how to fail. Then do the opposite of that.
And with regards to wasting life; time is most precious resource. No amount of money can replace it. I'd imagine even someone as rich as Warren Buffett would give up as his money just to be young again!
Apparently, most people don't care about wasting thier lives.