Every Adversity Contains The Seed Of …
The path to success consists of knowing your outcome; taking action; knowing the results you are getting; and having the flexibility to change until you are successful. You have to find the beliefs that support your outcome, the beliefs that get you where you want to go. If your beliefs don’t do that, you have to throw them out and try something new.
The accumulation of all of our experiences creates the impression that “we know“. When in fact, we “don’t know“, we merely believe “we know“. Confused? Take for example the old cliché “Everything happens for a reason “. As a normal human being we usually invoke this cliché in our minds when something goes wrong, when something bad happens. There must be a reason this happened to me, perhaps someday I will understand. I knew I should have… I knew it, I knew it, I knew it. How will I ever recover? Sound familiar? It’s happened to everyone! Now comes a choice.
There are numerous ways people react to this situation. If we use trading as an example and assume for the moment we’re not doing well, we may; refuse to even open our statements (out of sight out of mind). We can feel hurt and frustrated. We might sit home and mope, or go out and get drunk. We will be mad. Seek blame; the broker, the advisor, a friend who recommended it, the company insiders whose shares we invested in. It doesn’t really matter, it just must be someone else’s fault, it can’t be me!
All of this might allow us to let off some steam, but it doesn’t help. It does not bring us any closer to our desired outcome. It takes a lot of discipline to be able to retrace our steps, learn painful lessons, mend fences, and take a really good look at new possibilities. That is, however, the only way to get a positive outcome from a seemingly negative result.
All successful people have the uncanny ability to focus on what is possible even in a negative situation, what positive results could come from it. They think “everything happens for a reason, and a purpose, and it serves them”. They truly believe that every adversity contains the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit.
The bible says, “you reap what you sow” it does not say you reap what you desire. Could the mistakes you have made, the losses you incurred, sow the seeds of learning? Does it make you think, perhaps all I need is a further education? And then get one? Or does it make you think, you need to be a professional, an insider, a floor trader, to make money in the markets?
You probably paid for your professional education. The market is your new education. Your losses, if any, are the cost of your new education. If you take the positive approach, say this is just the school of hard knocks. I will read, study and learn. Next time I’ll make money. From now on I’ll make money. Now you can say, this happened for a reason and it serves me!
