Week 22 – Mastery

This is what I aspire to. Mastery! And so, I think, do a lot of people. But there are some questions to be answered here… First: Mastery of what? Second: What does Mastery actually mean; how will I recognize it; how will I know when I have achieved it; and most importantly how am I going to feel as a Master?

That second question, and in particular the last part, is the hardest one. For me, I have known for a few years that I want to become a Master Trader. For a long time I didn’t really answer that second question though. Until these past two weeks or so.

I have learned to become a self-directed thinker through the MKMMA course, and that is a major part of being able to progress. First of all, I had to realize that there was another, deeper question to be asked. Secondly, I had to go into the silence and think about what I might ask, and what I might answer.

The final push (or rather a gentle nudge) came when a friend I mastermind with made a profound remark. We had been going over our visions and goals and were getting to the action steps, when I shared with him that I often find it hard to get myself to do the things I know I should do. He said he knew that problem. Basically, he said, there are two reasons why we don’t do what we want to do; either our goals are too high and lofty so they’re not believable, or we are not really passionate about them after all.

That got me thinking. Maybe he was right, maybe I had set my goals too high and forgotten to fill in the intermediate steps. Maybe I just needed to set some intermediate goals, something believable yet inspiring. And that’s where I discovered my problem: I could not come up with something inspiring! I was frustrated and angry. I asked myself: What would the Sage Trader I intend to become do next?  The answer was clear and it came in the form of  another question. I wrote it at the top of an index card: What am I passionate about?

At first I could not think of anything. So I went into a silent meditation and I came up with an answer. And it was so glaringly obvious that I was astounded not having seen it before…

Games! And not just playing games, but creating games. I spent a good deal of my teenage years developing a very complex and intricate board game. I was so passionate about it that I persuaded a lot of my friends to play this (very time consuming) game with me. I loved playing it and I loved developing it, adjusting the rules, the board, everything. And because I had been designing every aspect of the game I had an advantage when playing it. And when I really know a game I always play to win!

There was my answer to the question. This is my passion and why I am attracted to trading the financial markets. I create the game, and I make the rules. Now I know and everything is clear. Now, I play to win.