We, as humans, exist in a moment between what we know has happened and what we think will happen. Most people enjoy the luxury of ignorance or assumption. Ignorance that, at any moment, their perceived reality can change and assumption that what has happened will continue to happen. While there is some kind of persistence to normal life and what has happened has the highest likely hood of being what continues to happen, those of us who live life nearer the to the edge know that the current moment and the next moment may be in vast contrast to one another. We also know that it is up against that edge that all real living is done. Despite it’s constant stress, we wouldn’t give it up for a second. As an intraday futures trader, it’s actually those moments when we make our money. It’s the moment expectation of future outcomes fails. Despite the obvious change, market participants refuse to accept their new paradigm. Because of this, we eat.
Predetermined Outcomes Those of us who are not ignorant to the possibility of a surprise next moment are not likely to be truly “ready for anything”. In fact, the truth of “anything can happen” is typically more of a burden then a gift. We wonder how we might respond if X actually did happen or, what would it be like if Y become true? If we’re being honest with ourselves and the world around us, we know that the worst may actually happen. The vast majority of people avoid confronting this degree of massive uncertainly by hiding behind conspiracy or ignoring the possibility. The conscious person, while burdened by this reality, has a high potential to take advantage of it IF they can begin to change they way they confront each potential reality shift that their mind presents.
Move from Responding to Creating Instead of looking at the world as something that is happening to you, look at the world as something that you are happening to. You are not meant to bounce between life circumstances, reacting “as best you can” to each new event. You are meant to speak a new reality into each of these new moments. To create inside this space of the present your own reality. You have a tremendous effect on the reality around you, the people around you. You can be, you are a force of nature. You can move from wondering what will happen to determining what will happen. You are able to move beyond “but what if” to “I will”. You are able to set in stone who you are and what you will be before a thing becomes.
Certainty inside Uncertainty While there is no way to know what may or may not happen next, you are able to know who you will be in each new moment you find yourself. In fact, this is what you were meant to do. You are meant to exist as constant among inconstant. You are to be who you’ve determined yourself to be while the moments around you swirl in chaos.
It’s for this reason that I find financial markets to be so interesting. Sure, the pay can be good but more over, there is not another space of work that presents the opportunity to test yourself and your constancy of self more often and more frequently than this. As a trader, you cannot ask yourself the open ended question “I wonder what I’ll do if” or “What will I do when”. Instead, you must set yourself before hand to be what you will be in each of those moments. You must not only know what to do in each of these new moments, you must actually do it. You must do it despite the pain of doing it.
The future, despite it being unknown, must in some way be predetermined.
Seek Higher Ground