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The vast majority of novice traders have never taken the time to consider how important flexibility is to their success, or the success of the professional trader. The amazing thing is that most successful traders have many beliefs that require them to be disciplined, and to be flexible. Beliefs about flexibility will also be found among outstanding athletes, businesspeople, and other individuals who have succeeded on a massive scale. |
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Flexibility originates with the unconscious realization at an early age that without flexibility we may not reach our immediate goal. As we get older we realize consciously and unconsciously how important flexibility is to all animals, plants, and other people. One of the laws of nature is that in order to survive, every living thing must be flexible to some to degree or another. Every living plant is flexiblesome more than others. In many cases the more flexible the plant is, the faster it will grow. Evidence of this is everywhere you look. For example, a poplar tree is much more flexible than an oak tree. Guess which one grows faster? Also, which one do you think will survive a hurricane in better condition? In case you didn't know, a poplar tree grows so fast that many people consider it an oversize weed! Isn't evolution nature's way to exhibit its ability to be flexible? |
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Flexibility is the ability to adapt our approach either mentally or physically to a problem so that we can overcome it and still get our desired outcome. Anyone who has ever walked along a barbed wire fence can remember seeing how any tree used as a fencepost grew around the barbed wire. The tree desired to grow, but the wire was hindering its growth. So the tree, while retaining its nature of being a tree, simply "flexed" or bent itself around the wire. Similarly traders will have constant problems that require the ability to be flexible while remaining disciplined and true to their own beliefs. Do you believe that a disciplined trader is a rigid trader? What do you imagine Jimmy Rogers would say about discipline and flexibility? |
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Thinking in a flexible way is the ability to perceive a different approach to the problem, so that we may still accomplish the desired outcome. Our ability to grow (or learn) from the challenge allows us to more easily handle similar problems in the future. As we increase our problem-solving abilities, we become more flexible. In other words, when we are mentally flexible enough so that we can overcome a new problem in a new way, we are creating new references that will affect our beliefs about ourselves and the problem. When people are able to "bend" their thinking around a new problem without losing sight of their desired outcome, they have the ability to remain in the moment and to keep their beliefs intact. |
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