The Past Is Not A Prison
If someone came up to me and frustratingly admitted, “I’ve lost money for the past 3 months in a row” do you know what I’d say?
I’d ask him or her one question:
Where is your Focus?
Because losing money is never fun. And in the New Economy, it hurts even more. And the only way to stop the cycle of loss and frustration is by shifting to the proper Focus.
William James, a 19th century Harvard Philosopher defined Focus this way:
“It is the taking possession of the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what may seem several simultaneous possible objects or trains of thought… It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others.”
Sometimes that means withdrawing from the past in order to focus on the present.
You see, I’ve met a lot of traders who have lost some money. Maybe it was money they needed. Money the couldn’t afford to loose. Maybe it was not their money but someone else’s. But in every case of a consistently losing trader, I find a misguided focus.
Instead of focusing on trading well, trading profitably, following their plan, and understanding probabilities… they focus on how much they’ve lost.
They re-play every bad decision in their mind over and over again. They rehearse everything that would be different if they hadn’t made those choices.
No wonder the next time a great opportunity comes along, they don’t recognize it. They are so focused on poor trading decisions in the past, it has become a prison that has them under lock-and-key.
And at the end of the day, there is just one solution to break free and get out of the slump.
The solution is this: to intentionally forget the pain associated with losing, and focus like a laser beam on taking every trade in accordance with a well thought out plan.
Taking a loss every now and then comes with the territory. It doesn’t mean any trader is a failure. It just may point to weaknesses or gaps in their system.
Do me a favor, and leave a comment below with the most common issue you are facing in your trading… and lets see if we can help each other out.
Until next time,
Jeff
3 Responses to “The Past Is Not A Prison”
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Pulling the trigger to get started
Jeff, Thank you for this timely post. I have gotten killed this year with wrong directional trades 9betting on the correction that doesn’t come). My biggest problem is two fold: 1) When to cut and run. i.e. take the loss and get out. 2) Fear – afraid to not be in the directional when the big reversal happens. I’m so sure (wrongly) that the market will tank that I keep making trades based on that. Do I get out of all of those losing trades immediately? What do I do to get back on track? I know you cannot give personal advice but can you broadly comment on this and how to get moving forward again? Please help! Thank you
I’m thankful that I decided to finally take the necessary steps to direct my life where I want it to go and to have linked up with your phenomenal website and group of traders. Thanks!