Everyday we are surrounded by processes and things designed to make our lie simpler however somehow it always becomes more complex. In a book The Artist’s Way at Work – Riding the Dragon –  12 Weeks to Creative Freedom by Mark Bryan, Julia Cameron and Catherine Allen published by William Morrow and Company, NY, 1998 a process is described how you turn your life towards the simpler version. It all starts with what is important to you, why do you get up and after having your basic needs what is important to you and why. The 12 weeks has a connection to riding the Dragon which is a metaphor for both looking inwards and soaring in the sky. The process involves some ups and downs and it helps a person figure out what is important in their life and set about making those aspects the focus of your life. Along the way you will may have to be creative to figure out how you will do those aspects first. Most of our lives have ups and downs ideally there are more ups than downs, but we all have to learn to prioritize particularly in the down times.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, if our lives go up and down through cycles so does the stocks market. The easy times is to buy a company stock and see it rise, the hardest aspect is to see it fall and not rise for a extend period of time. If the company’s stock falls but the company is paying a dividend, the upside is  the yield rises and it is easy to justify keeping the stock.