Jemook » Wed May 21, 2014 3:07 pm wrote:
........ Meditation is a great way to relax your brain - if you meditate for 20 minutes before your trading session you'll be more relaxed and focussed. Read some Eckhart Tolle - I really like his way of thinking.
Cheers,
Jem
I concur. I recall distinctly Eckhart saying in one of his sessions:
"What's in the way IS the way"
meaning that the issues in your life that you presently view as unpleasant and distasteful are just the ones you need to get to a better place.
You cannot separate your Self from anything you do - and trading is not an exception. If I were to hand you a system to trade today and left you by yourself, by the time I returned in a few months, I probably will not recognize it as what I gave you anymore. You would have moulded it to suit your personality and style, that is if you have not migrated to some other entirely different system.
On several occasions in the past, I have come across some new element of trading that fascinated me much and seemed very promising. I would get so engrossed with it that I would forget the salient parts of what I used to do before it came along. And always, I would reach a dead end and have to ask "Now, what's wrong?" Only on looking things over again do I always realize that I have abandoned all that I had previously identified as right - right for me. It wasn't by any means perfect (probably will never be) but it certainly was the foundation - my foundation - for whatever else is to come. I had to finally come to realize that the way I trade now is essentially me. It is an integral part of my personality. Anything new and worthwhile that comes along must compliment, not replace it.
I agree again with you, Jem, on the issue of treating trading as a hobby from the stand-point that it must be fun for you. If it isn't fun but simply something you want to make a living from, it must be one hell of a preoccupation. Ironically, it is only if it is fun for you that you can get to make a living off of it!
And Hannes, whilst you are out on your sabbatical and taking time off to weigh things over, just remember one thing:
There is NOTHING that you really want that you can't get. The irony of it is that you cannot REALLY want anything that is not meant for you.... (now, that may need some mauling over..!!!). But the point is this: failure in anything you really want does not mean it is not for you. Take a good look at any one who has really succeeded at anything. THEY LITERALLY FAILED THEIR WAY TO SUCCESS. Hannes, if trading is where your heart lies, don't ever give up on it because you are not yet succeeding.
I think I was at the point you are now over a year ago. I had identified trading as what I wanted and was going to do, yet I was blowing account after account. I really was at the point of signing off with the notion that maybe it just was not possible to build up the kind of figures I had as my target. Then CJ came on the scene. That guy did something I had never seen anybody else do - he published the trades and figures of his LIVE account, and boy, how they resembled the figures I had been dreaming of!!! For me, it was like a shot in the arm! Remember the 4-minute mile? Everybody thought it was impossible until Bannister came along and did it in 1954. But what is more significant is that within a year or so of his achievement, not one, but several others did it also.
So, take a break Hannes, if you need it, but hang in there and you'll see that all that you need will come your way somehow, some time.
I really must apologize for this rant, if anyone has been able to read this far. I saw this thread today and it coincided with much of what I'd been turning over in my mind lately. I couldn't hold it back from spilling!!! Maybe some bit of it will be of use to someone.
All the best. |
