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What's Your Comfort Zone?

As humans, we love the familiarity of our routines. We often resist change because it’s scary and an unknown. We like things the way we like them - why change? But as we know deep down, the only constant is change.

Psychologists define Comfort Zone as “a state in which things feel familiar to a person, and they are at ease, and in control of their environment, experiencing low levels of anxiety and stress. In this zone, a steady level of performance is possible.” I like my comfort zone and I’m sure you do too. The pandemic, however, has pretty much thrown all of us out of our comfort zone.

So this is an opportunity to question the things that we believe, to try things that scare us, to learn to deal with uncertainty and to become comfortable with the concept of uncomfortability.

When I started Earth Equity Advisors (then Krull & Company) sixteen years ago, I stepped way out of my comfort zone and took a leap into the unknown. When we moved to Asheville we were out of our comfort zone. These experiences taught me that growth lies beyond our current self-imposed limits. Were the changes risks? Of course they were. Could Krull & Company have failed as many small businesses do? Definitely. But to move forward, I had to take the chance.

What are the changes that you can implement now (or as soon as things open back up)? Perhaps you’ve learned by being at home that less actually is more. Consumerism, as I’ve written about before, isn’t as necessary as many of us thought it was. Or maybe now is the time to make that career move or change something else about your lifestyle. It certainly is something to meditate on…

Learn more about leaving your comfort zone in this Psychology Today article. Write us and let know how you intend to break out of your comfort zone!

Last week I asked how some of you were going to spend your Earth Day. Here’s what some of you reported:

I’ll be taking my dog for a walk soon, to soak up some of this beauty and sunshine on Earth Day.
I spent Earth Day with a lunchtime bike ride with my husband through our neighborhood park and have been tuning in periodically to the Happiness & Sustainability Around the Earth Webinar.
We paddled the cypress swamps of Ebenezer Creek. Been years and it was as beautiful as ever. Then we enjoyed the fruits of our SIP (Stay in Place) labor in our back yard. And of course- we are not really SIP'ing since we own and work at a grocery store.

Thanks for your feedback – I look forward to hearing about your comfort zone ideas this week!!!

On to business…

The markets seem to think that the worst of the pandemic is behind us. I’m not sure I agree, but I will certainly take some of the stock market gains that we’ve seen over the last week. I just hope that we won’t be giving them back just as quickly as we got them.

It was reported today that the US economy officially shrank at its fastest pace since 2008 in the first quarter. That’s not saying much since there has been nothing but growth since the Great Recession. During this period, GDP contracted at a 4.8% annualized rate which puts us almost certainly into a recession.

The current quarter is where we’ll see even more contraction in the economy and this is where we have to be very careful about jumping back into the market. The FOMO or Fear of Missing Out is a very strong psychological pull and it’s very easy to get lured back in too early when it looks like things are recovering.

But we will have a second wave of COVID-19, Dr. Fauci says it is inevitable. What also is inevitable is that until we have a vaccine or effective treatment for the virus, the outlook for the economy will be extremely uncertain. And with that uncertainty will come a volatile stock market.

So we need to be prepared to reopen the economy the right way, and prepare for the second wave. In an article in Barron’s, Matthew Harrison from Morgan Stanley says we need four things to reopen smartly:

Adequate surge capacity in hospitals
Infrastructure to support testing
Robust contact tracing
Access to serology testing to determine who might already be immune to the virus

It is incumbent on the administration, Congress and the states to stop their fighting and finger pointing and work together. The more coordination we see with shared goals, the better and faster we will recover.

We plan on rebalancing the diversified mutual fund portfolios on Friday, May 1^st. We’ll be taking some of the recent stock market gains and making some other minor adjustments. If you have any questions, please let us know.

Other than our social media presence, I also send out a weekly email (usually Mondays) with a broad range of articles I find interesting and informative. You can join the 4500+ subscribers here: sign up here.

The entire Earth Equity Team is grateful for your business and especially your trust during this very difficult time. You can be rest assured that every day, we’re working hard to make decisions that are in your best interest. Please reach out with any concerns you may have...

Stay safe and healthy!

My Best,

Peter Krull
CEO & Director of Investments
Earth Equity Advisors, LLC