Benjamin Beck, CFP®A couple of weekends ago we were standing on the competition floor in Huntington Beach at a massive CrossFit festival called Wodapalooza. Last year we were spectators. This year, we weren’t just watching—we were sponsors and competitors. Vincent Savio , Joshua Plosker , and I signed up for a three-person team, throwing ourselves into workouts designed to humble even the most seasoned CrossFitter.
It was everything at once: camaraderie, adrenaline, nerves, self-doubt, elation. And in between those peaks and valleys, there were the quiet moments where you wondered if you belonged out there at all. It was the perfect laboratory for the human mind under stress.
I’ve always believed the CrossFit gym is a microcosm of the market. The parallels and analogies are everywhere—discipline, delayed gratification, staying focused on the plan when your heart rate spikes and everyone around you seems to be moving faster. How quickly a single thought can manifest into something real—negative or positive. Miss a rep and suddenly your confidence wavers; let it snowball and you’re done.
But you can also catch yourself. You can breathe. You can reassess. You can re-engage. You can actually find another gear you didn’t know you had. That’s the beauty of controlling your thoughts and emotions.
That weekend reminded me of a story a client, CrossFit Games champion Jayson Hopper, told me recently.
Jayson Hopper’s Moment
He entered the 2025 CrossFit Games in peak form. Everything was falling into place all weekend until the final day. The second-to-last event combined power snatches and a shuttle run. He started in first place and was moving through it rapidly. But at the very end, he missed a few key lifts. His lead shrank.
When he walked onto the floor, he was in control, solidly in first. When he walked off, what had seemed like an imminent Games victory was suddenly in jeopardy. He was fired up, frustrated, emotional.
His coach met him immediately and didn’t sugarcoat it: “That didn’t go as planned.”
But he also didn’t let Jayson spiral. He reminded him of his preparation—his capabilities, the hours and days and weeks of brutal training that got him there.
There was one event left. Jayson gathered himself, came back for the finale, and put on a spectacular demonstration of fitness to win the CrossFit Games and be crowned the fittest athlete in the world for 2025.
Everyone Misses a Lift
That story is the essence of what I see every day. Everyone eventually misses a lift. Everyone eventually faces a moment when emotions get the best of them and they feel everything slipping away—their progress, their discipline, their sense of control. Those emotions can set us off on destructive paths.
My job as an advisor is to help you make great long-term decisions about how to deploy your hard-earned capital.
All our facts are from the past; all our investment decisions play out in an unknown future. And the future never feels more unknowable than it does in the moment. That’s why it’s so important to understand something I’ve long agreed with: forecasting market and economic conditions is virtually impossible.
I make two observations about that:
- If forecasting is impossible, perhaps we should all stop making them—or listening to them.
- None of us is investing for right now. All of us are investing for decades—maybe generations.
A 60-year-old today often has a life expectancy of three or four more decades. Add multi-generational goals and you’re talking 50 or 60 years of investing. So the last thing an investor with a lifetime horizon should be thinking about is “right now.”
Get Out of Right Now
It should be clear that my first job as a financial advisor is to help people get out of their heads about what’s going on today. The faster and more effectively we can do that—by shutting down “right now” conversations—the more we can do our real job: rationality during uncertainty.
And given that we cannot predict what’s going to happen, the question becomes: how shall we plan, based on the certainty that the future will be different from the past? History shows us there will be an endless series of challenges. The sooner we can turn the discussion back to planning, the more pitfalls we can avoid and the more good we can do.
My default method for this is simple: take you back to the time before “right now” was front and center. When we established the plan, we talked about cherished financial goals.
At no point did someone say, “My goal is to avoid all downturns” or “My goal is to control interest rates” or “My goal is to outguess politics.”
Most people’s goals were to live a dignified, independent retirement; fund their kids’ education; leave a legacy. Those goals haven’t changed. Economic adversity doesn’t change them.
Reaffirming the Plan
Within the planning process we identified the asset class that historically has had the greatest probability of you reaching your goals in the time available: diversified ownership of the world’s greatest companies. We’ve always known the relentless uptrend in equity values would be, frequently and typically interrupted.
We planned for it.
We planned for a decline every five years or so—maybe a third of a portfolio disappearing temporarily. We talked about having cash reserves or the ability to add to the portfolio during downturns. We didn’t just mention these scenarios—we planned for them.
What we’ve done here is important:
- Removed from the discussion any sense of urgency about what’s happening right now.
- Dismissed forecasting as irrelevant to long-term investors.
- Refocused the discussion on the plan, which is always running out of time.
- Reaffirmed that if equities were the way to reach your goals before, they still are—despite interruptions.
Staying the Course Through the Next Downturn
As we move toward the close of this year and beyond, there will be a time—whether this year or next—when it becomes clear we’re in another economic contraction. No matter how deep the drawdown, in THE NOW, it will feel difficult, emotional, maybe even horrific.
I am not forecasting a quick recovery, but history shows that when markets do turn back around, the recovery is usually sharp. People become a little less petrified. Confidence slowly returns.
During these times, it’s critical we aren’t dragged into another round of market discussions. We keep the focus relentlessly on the plan. We don’t enable people to get back into equities only because prices are going up. People should be invested in equities for one reason and one reason only: because it’s the only way they can reach their long-term plan.
Otherwise, we risk being stuck in “right now” for the rest of our careers.
The Coach on the Sideline
That’s what Jayson Hopper’s coach did on that Sunday in Albany. He reminded Jayson of his preparation, his plan, his training. He didn’t give him a new strategy or a new forecast. He simply gave him the gift of perspective and rationality under pressure.
That’s my job as your advisor. Not to predict or to panic. But to coach. To stand on the sideline while when you might be “on the floor,” to remind you of the preparation that got you here, and to guide you back into your own strength when the moment feels weakest.
Because everyone misses a lift. Everyone. The question is what happens next.
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Ben Beck is Managing Partner & Chief Investment Officer at Beck Bode, a deliberately different wealth management firm with a unique view on investing, business and life.