This bear market has been brutal. It has been long, bloody, and relentless. It seems every day we are further and further from seeing the next Bull Market which we are all holding out dearly for. On top of that, it seems like new products, projects, protocols, and Sacrifices are popping up everywhere, giving us the feeling that PulseChain is brimming with these "opportunities". The reality is: these “opportunities” as well as managing them, are draining as hell. As if this Bear market needed any help... I really do get it though; we want to be maximizing our dollars using the latest and greatest DeFi tools that are designed to do just that. It can be both fun and rewarding if approached right, and learning about new products on a deep level can really help our overall understanding of Crypto as well as how to make our own strategic decisions. One of the problems however, is how easy it is to make a mistake or have the economic factors/conditions we had foreseen, to just completely change against us. An example could be as simple as a tweet made by a prominent person on social media that causes panic in the form of red candles on a price chart. This has happened time and time again no matter what Crypto you point your finger at. Everything that was expected to happen, has happened completely different nearly every time; even if the outcome is still a positive.
The other problem Is, almost all of these once labelled “opportunities” are down. Down bad. Even if for the moment. Opportunities have promised high APR’s, staking, and so much more. “Opportunities” have been everywhere. But what are these opportunities exactly and why are we so concerned with every opportunity? This isn’t to say that these opportunities can’t make you money or be incredibly rewarding, nor am I saying that it is bad in any way to enjoy spending a large amount of time within the crypto world. If you are someone who genuinely enjoys the chase of that sweet yield, quick ROI or whatever you are searching for in the opportunities blossoming around us, then all of the power to you! This blog is meant for the people who don’t have that drive, but feel like they need to make the most of them and less of a desire to do so.
The next question then becomes this: Are there big opportunities and small opportunities and are we placing our emphasis equally into both or are we focused on one more than the other? In my opinion, the big opportunities are the longer term, buy & hold tokens that we accumulate for the coming Bull Run at the lowest prices we can get them. The most significant gains in price appreciation we will see will likely not come from a staking protocol that gives you 50% APR. It will not come from the PulseX Farms, nor will it come from Liquidity Providing. It will come from buying the right assets at the most opportune time and holding them until it appreciates to the point when we can harvest the fruits from it. I have never heard of anyone gaining 100x on their investment from just staking alone. Ever. This isn’t to say that the smaller opportunities aren’t important and don't deserve our attention. Getting into the right protocol at the right time and building our bags can amplify the ROI we see during the Bull Run and massively at that. Just look at those who staked early in Hex and cashed out near the top of the Last Bull Run. They are up massive simply because they held to the top of the Bull and had their gains amplified massively with the addition of staking. The problem is, most of these newer “opportunities” have only gone down since the last bull run and no amount of APR could possibly save you. More often than not, Investing early in the project because of high staking rewards may look like “The Play” at first glance, only to realize that you could invest a fraction of what the original investment was worth and achieve a much larger bag of said token if you had just waited weeks or months. This is something that I have seen numerous times in this Bear Market and even learned the hard way myself. It is not something obvious, nor have I really heard anyone ever talk about it, but it is the brutal truth. History doesn’t repeat but it often rhymes so well that we can’t believe we didn’t see it coming. Sometimes the bottom takes 33 days to happen after launch and sometimes it can be months without knowing when the bottom will ever arrive. Let me share a Personal example. I watched thousands of dollars turn to dust (not exactly to nothing but it felt like it went down to nothing internally) after jumping in head first immediately after the launch of a new protocol only to later realize how much larger of a bag I could have had for a fraction of what I put in if I had only just waited and watched. Now, this isn’t to say that any of these “opportunities” that are down will never go back up and pay off in the long run, but this is the price of playing the game without understanding the patterns that occur over time. It can also be that we get lost in our own excitement and passion and blind ourselves to what is happening right before our very eyes.
The key takeaway here is – Patience. Yes, there is lots to be excited about when it comes to new products and “opportunities”, but again, why do we feel the need to make the most of every protocol that opens its doors for use immediately? Sometimes sitting back and watching can be the best play you can make, but sometimes the only way to truly understand how 'sitting back and watching applies to each circumstance can only come through experience in the market.
There is this ‘thing’ within the crypto community, where we have to always be looking for the next way to make some gains or try to increase our bag size or do something, when in reality that can be a dangerous mentality when gone unchecked. This isn’t an over arching theme, especially within the side of the community that is more in line with the Richard Heart ethos of only buying and holding Richard Heart tokens; however, it is a sub theme of the more savvy users within the ecosystem and community that often figure out the game mechanics of a new project early on and openly speak about it. It makes you feel like you should be taking advantage of it too!
Not everyone has the current capacity to understand the risks involved, why there are risks involved, nor spend the time per day it takes to manage the risks. Most users do not have the time to watch charts, figure out how the protocol works and all its intricacies so they can make highly calculated decisions in crypto for hours a day. Most people deep down that I have worked with, want to just put their money into the asset they think will perform the best in the future and leave it alone, but get sucked into all the new shiny products coming to the space weekly.
This is where Crypto Fatigue creeps in and slowly starts making its home deeper and deeper into us, until we want nothing to do with the space. Hell, I did it a few months back and am just now finally coming around from my episode of Crypto Fatigue. Everyone has a different tolerance, but it is very wise to listen to yourself and become conscious of your thoughts, feelings, and actions and what they are reflecting to you about your current inner state. If we notice ourselves getting sucked into community drama or being sucked into what founders are saying within crypto in a negative way and find ourselves engaging with it, it may be time to step away. If we notice ourselves feeling low outside of crypto but also like we have a constant need to know what is going on in terms of news, opportunities, etc. within crypto, then maybe fatigue has started to set in. If we notice ourselves feeling hopeless or defeated that our crypto journey is doomed, fatigue is setting in and this is a point to disconnect from all sources of crypto and get away to do something that lifts us up. If we keep placing our energy into something that does not at least return us the energy we invest, it drains us and lowers our overall state of being. We need to break the pattern and find something that returns us with the energy we invest into it for a while. It is so easy for crypto to drain us of all vital energy for other areas in our life when we don’t see payoff from our energetic/emotional/mental/physical investments, yet we keep investing deeper and deeper, until we have nothing left to invest on all fronts. Should you be worried that you might miss something though, while you are away? If its something that you need to know about, it will likely find you, and the small things that seem big now will go unseen. When the Bull Run starts, it doesn’t last weeks, it last for months on end. You will know when it is happening, and you won’t have missed “opportunities”, especially if you are subscribed to my email list ;). If you have a few contacts that you trust to let you know when something important is going on, leave it all behind and wait for the text, email, or phone call from them if that’s what you need. Taking time for ourselves to not get caught up in the feverish pace of the crypto space is just as important as educating ourselves in the DeFi world, but a major part of life is about balance, both externally and internally. Finding the balance of crypto and life that works best for you is crucial. Some may back off just a little and find themselves in the perfect harmony, where others may need to back off almost completely. Find what works best for you and let this answer come from only you.
Listen to your body, it will tell you everything you need to know about what is and isn’t right for you. There are times when I have made a decision and immediately felt my body relax, which is a clear sign of a right decision for me at that time. Other times, you must decide, stick to the decision for some time and see how you feel, as it can take time for the stress, anxiety, or fatigue you feel to dissipate. This is another facet of experimenting and getting to know yourself on a much deeper level.
It is my belief that you are the most important person in your life. Taking care of yourself allows you to assist others, loved ones, etc. far better than if we neglect ourselves. Taking care of yourself will give you the clarity to act upon the highest level of logical reasoning, knowledge, and wisdom that you carry within you. We can all take care of ourselves a little better, even in how it relates to crypto and our financial futures. Thank you for reading and I hope you have a wonderful time away from the crypto world if that’s what you choose to do.
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