# Bear Markets: Always Be Adding to Yourself

In a bear market, you must constantly improve yourself.

When the market is cold, it's easiest to let yourself go to waste.

Many people don't fail because they missed opportunities in bull markets—they fail because they already lost their edge during the bear market.

Because when the next real bull market arrives, the market only rewards those who prepared in advance.

So what you should do in a bear market is make up for what you've been lacking beforehand.

Additionally, prolonged laziness will drag you into a state of slow self-abandonment.

But if you keep yourself in a state of readiness, when opportunities come, you'll spot them more easily and grab them more readily.

I've been doing several things lately.

The first thing is learning English.

I've taken about 50 lessons over time.

By now, my biggest feeling isn't that I've suddenly become great, but that I'm gradually losing my fear of speaking.

Though my vocabulary is still limited and I'm far from fluent most of the time,

at least now I can have some basic conversations with foreigners.

And when I encounter words I don't know, I don't get completely stuck like before;

I try to substitute with similar or close-meaning words to keep the expression going.

For me, that's progress.

Because with language, you don't wait until you know everything to speak—you learn as you go.

Now I also write down new words I learn every day in a notebook.

Recording a bit each day seems slow, but over time, it's really accumulation.

The second thing is completely upgrading my home internet.

The latest solution on the market now is WiFi 7.

I installed a TP-LINK AP mesh system for myself.

It's quite interesting—hung on the wall it looks like an outlet,

but it's actually a router.

It takes up no space and can cover every room and bedroom in my home.

I discovered after researching

that although my home had gigabit broadband, I was often only getting 100 Mbps speeds.

The problem wasn't the broadband itself, but the old wiring in my walls used Category 5 cables, which can only deliver 100 Mbps.

Later I had an electrician come and replace all the wiring in my walls with Category 6 cables.

Otherwise no matter how high your broadband is, you're still getting discounted speeds.

The electrician also recommended a brand called Akihabara, saying their shielding is well-done and Category 6 cables from them are quite stable.

Many people don't pay attention to internet normally,

but when it comes time to grab IDOs, grab allocations, grab opportunities,

network speed and stability become your most practical foundation.

When the market is good, before you can execute with speed, your network can't fail first.

The third thing is a proxy/VPN setup.

I increasingly feel that installing a stable proxy setup and using it long-term

helps improve both my writing ability and trading ability.

I previously tried installing it on a Windows computer,

and it worked at first, but less than two weeks later, it just crashed completely.

It wasn't just the normal occasional disconnections, but the entire proxy environment broke.

I even had someone fix it later, and their conclusion was very direct:

this solution is unstable on Windows—once it crashes, it's done.

So looking at it now, the best solution is still to stick with Mac.

Either you already have an Apple computer,

or buy a Mac mini separately, specifically for running the proxy.

If you truly plan to use it long-term,

a Mac mini—this small machine on 24/7 standby—is basically the most stable option.

The fourth thing is taking care of my health.

This is actually more foundational than the previous three things.

Because if you don't take care of your health during a bear market, if you don't regulate your sleep schedule,

when a bull market comes, people easily fall back into that state of staying up all night, burning out their bodies, trading their health for gains.

So now I also force myself to keep my sleep schedule as regular as possible,

and maintain some exercise daily.

Even just running 3-5 kilometers—as long as you stick with it, it has meaning.

Many people usually think health isn't urgent,

but later you'll discover

that without a resilient body, much of what matters is empty.

Money is certainly important.

But if you end up making money while destroying your health, and can't even enjoy life properly,

much of it ultimately becomes meaningless.

What you should really do in a bear market isn't complain about lack of opportunities, but gradually adjust yourself to a state where you can actually catch opportunities.

English opens information and communication boundaries.

Internet is to ensure execution efficiency.

A proxy setup is to improve cognition, writing, and trading support abilities.

Health and sleep schedule ensure that when opportunities come, you can truly catch them and handle them.

These things don't look like returns in a bull market,

but when the market really comes back,

you'll find they all eventually become part of your returns.