Our life hangs on a Silken thread.
Try telling this to anyone who has been through trauma, think LasVegas recently.
I have abundance. You have abundance. Can you see?
- Thread starter Grantx
- Start date
Try telling this to anyone who has been through trauma, think LasVegas recently.
Abundance and energy and all the goody warminess...doesn't buy a watch, or car, or home...or attract a woman.
Alot of people speak like you. But that still doesn't change the fact that their life or financial situation remains lackluster, or average.
If you are, however, one of the rare people who could convert that stuff into real-world results...good for you.
Kind of like nuclear fission.
Mazal tov, Grantsex
and May the Farce be With you,
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This way of thinking has a really bad reputation, I understand this. Everyone has their own path to walk. Ill briefly explain mine.
I didn’t convince myself into my current state it happened against my will. I was happy (or so I believed) living my false little puppet show. Until a certain sequence of events completely shattered my reality. In the darkest most desperate point of my life I turned to trading. What I thought was bad got a lot worse... in orders of magnitude.
I reached a hopeless place where all I wanted was to end the pain. I cried every single day. For months. I would watch my family at night while they slept and I felt like a thoroughbred failure to them. ‘Fuck it. End this, you will be doing them a favour’ became my narrative. The darkness was suffocating and I believed it more every day.
I cant say what happened or how it happened but one day in this pit of despair I saw myself. All deception was gone. What I saw appalled me.
That was my ground zero.
It was also my turning point.
I couldn’t see it at the time but that passage of my life was a cleansing fire. I am grateful for it. I don’t need to try convince myself anymore. My affirmations are effortless.
It is who I am.
I didn’t convince myself into my current state it happened against my will. I was happy (or so I believed) living my false little puppet show. Until a certain sequence of events completely shattered my reality. In the darkest most desperate point of my life I turned to trading. What I thought was bad got a lot worse... in orders of magnitude.
I reached a hopeless place where all I wanted was to end the pain. I cried every single day. For months. I would watch my family at night while they slept and I felt like a thoroughbred failure to them. ‘Fuck it. End this, you will be doing them a favour’ became my narrative. The darkness was suffocating and I believed it more every day.
I cant say what happened or how it happened but one day in this pit of despair I saw myself. All deception was gone. What I saw appalled me.
That was my ground zero.
It was also my turning point.
I couldn’t see it at the time but that passage of my life was a cleansing fire. I am grateful for it. I don’t need to try convince myself anymore. My affirmations are effortless.
It is who I am.
This is not the answer IMO especially in the arena of trading. However, if it helped someone in a dark hour come out into the light then so be it. There may be some good in it.
That said; putting expectations on oneself and the expectations of others that get dumped on ones self are a big part of the problem. By confessing all this stuff trying to make it so one is just piling more expectations on top of more expectations. When reality hits then the crash is even greater. Optimism by nature places great expectations upon people.
The better way is to just "live" the experience of life. Instead of trying to find happiness in expectations or manufacture happiness just live the moment. One comes into this world butt naked. One will leave that way... "so to speak".. so nothing in terms of materialism means ANYTHING when the time to leave arrives. One famous person once said "a mans life does not consist in the abundance of things in which he possess". We as humans would do well to heed those words.
Our brains are relentless in accusations of failure and tearing us to pieces. I think a better way is to simply learn to detach ourself FROM our thoughts. Were are NOT our thoughts. We exist as humans on a level above our thoughts. Or it could be below our thoughts. But either way our thoughts are not us and our happiness is in danger if we identify with our thoughts. The brain /mind manufactures thousands of thoughts daily. Most are fleeting and only last a few seconds. Others linger. Our brains are fickle. When we put too much stock in our thoughts we begin to identify with them and we create ourself in the image of those thoughts, regardless of reality. And that virtual image can be diametrically opposed to the reality of the situation. This become enormous pressure to then be what you think you should be and are not. So we manufacture what is not that it may become so...and we fall off the stool.
Most traders fail because they have these expectations for themselves as traders. Then when they put money on the line and lose that money and the thoughts flood in and cascade in. So, on the next trade they are operating in fear coupled with the brains ability to incessantly remind them of their previous failure. A few losses in a row and now they see themselves as "losers" not winners. Others run around affirming they are winners before they really are. They lose. The emotional toll is big. Positive affirmations ARE NOT gonna change the market to meet ones expectation. You can confess it until you are blue in the face and cannot breath. It is better to just realize the market is gonna do whatever it is gonna do...that traders are operating in an environment filled with uncertainty..that the edges are small and often fleeting...that losses are normal and part and parcel with the package and if you are losing more money than you are making money then the problem is your strategy and tactics or you are not prepared pyschologically and are making huge errors in that area. While the next trade has nothing to do with the previous trade it can IF the strategy has no edge and you keep using that strategy over and over. Otherwise, each trade is its own package boxed up by the trader and delivered by the markets and has nothing to do with yesterdays package that arrived on the front porch of ones trading account.
Mindfulness and detachment are better ways to approach trading (and perhaps life) than optimism and affirmations IMO. Of course ...this approach of mindfulness and detachment..is my opinion and may just be:
But life an be experienced and enjoyed without so much stress. Just think..if you lose the next 50 trades in a row..it is still not the end of the world. You still breathe...you still see...you still live. And things will not always be as they are. Life is for living and experiencing. The UPS as well as the DOWNS.
That said; putting expectations on oneself and the expectations of others that get dumped on ones self are a big part of the problem. By confessing all this stuff trying to make it so one is just piling more expectations on top of more expectations. When reality hits then the crash is even greater. Optimism by nature places great expectations upon people.
The better way is to just "live" the experience of life. Instead of trying to find happiness in expectations or manufacture happiness just live the moment. One comes into this world butt naked. One will leave that way... "so to speak".. so nothing in terms of materialism means ANYTHING when the time to leave arrives. One famous person once said "a mans life does not consist in the abundance of things in which he possess". We as humans would do well to heed those words.
Our brains are relentless in accusations of failure and tearing us to pieces. I think a better way is to simply learn to detach ourself FROM our thoughts. Were are NOT our thoughts. We exist as humans on a level above our thoughts. Or it could be below our thoughts. But either way our thoughts are not us and our happiness is in danger if we identify with our thoughts. The brain /mind manufactures thousands of thoughts daily. Most are fleeting and only last a few seconds. Others linger. Our brains are fickle. When we put too much stock in our thoughts we begin to identify with them and we create ourself in the image of those thoughts, regardless of reality. And that virtual image can be diametrically opposed to the reality of the situation. This become enormous pressure to then be what you think you should be and are not. So we manufacture what is not that it may become so...and we fall off the stool.
Most traders fail because they have these expectations for themselves as traders. Then when they put money on the line and lose that money and the thoughts flood in and cascade in. So, on the next trade they are operating in fear coupled with the brains ability to incessantly remind them of their previous failure. A few losses in a row and now they see themselves as "losers" not winners. Others run around affirming they are winners before they really are. They lose. The emotional toll is big. Positive affirmations ARE NOT gonna change the market to meet ones expectation. You can confess it until you are blue in the face and cannot breath. It is better to just realize the market is gonna do whatever it is gonna do...that traders are operating in an environment filled with uncertainty..that the edges are small and often fleeting...that losses are normal and part and parcel with the package and if you are losing more money than you are making money then the problem is your strategy and tactics or you are not prepared pyschologically and are making huge errors in that area. While the next trade has nothing to do with the previous trade it can IF the strategy has no edge and you keep using that strategy over and over. Otherwise, each trade is its own package boxed up by the trader and delivered by the markets and has nothing to do with yesterdays package that arrived on the front porch of ones trading account.
Mindfulness and detachment are better ways to approach trading (and perhaps life) than optimism and affirmations IMO. Of course ...this approach of mindfulness and detachment..is my opinion and may just be:
But life an be experienced and enjoyed without so much stress. Just think..if you lose the next 50 trades in a row..it is still not the end of the world. You still breathe...you still see...you still live. And things will not always be as they are. Life is for living and experiencing. The UPS as well as the DOWNS.
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No ofense, but the fact that you felt the need to share all this with complete strangers in an internet forum, even opening a separate thread to do it, probably means you have long way to go... IMHO, when such radical changes happen, they happen silently and there's no need or use to tell the whole world about it.
Beautiful post, and even helpful for traders. Trading is one profession where reality hits you over and over, and for those who do not want to admit their inconsequence in the markets, it can be one hell of a rollercoaster-ride of greed and fear. "Positive" affirmations by thought is often based on the same, thoughts of fear and greed, leading into the same feelings, and vica versa.
Life is more than trading though, with everything interconnected in incalculable ways, everything mirroring the other differently, displaying diverse aspects of oneself. Affirmations, positive or not, can have great effect on humanity and evolution.
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Thanks.
Go back a few years and I wouldn’t have been sharing anything online. Self preservation of an imaginary ego or something. How do I know what is real or what subtle paradigm programming still lingers?
This forum is just one of the avenues I use to express myself. Its a convenient tool I use to put myself in a vulnerable position. Kind of like a personal stress test. My reaction to criticism is what I observe.
You should try it sometime. Get vulnerable. Open yourself up. Share it with the world, shout it to the rooftops, make a complete and utter tit of yourself. What are you scared of? When you learn to let go of your carefully constructed reality you will open yourself to new experiences and opportunities. Had I continued in a quiet, dignified, reserved, silent manner and kept it all to myself, then this opportunity to interact with the fine folks of this forum would not have existed.
I create my own opportunities.
This forum is just one of the avenues I use to express myself. Its a convenient tool I use to put myself in a vulnerable position. Kind of like a personal stress test. My reaction to criticism is what I observe.
You should try it sometime. Get vulnerable. Open yourself up. Share it with the world, shout it to the rooftops, make a complete and utter tit of yourself. What are you scared of? When you learn to let go of your carefully constructed reality you will open yourself to new experiences and opportunities. Had I continued in a quiet, dignified, reserved, silent manner and kept it all to myself, then this opportunity to interact with the fine folks of this forum would not have existed.
I create my own opportunities.