What separates the 1% from the other 99% is a lot of hard work. It's perseverance. You have to love to do it.
TOM BALDWIN
There is nothing which persevering effort and unceasing and diligent care cannot overcome.
SENECA
Flinch not, neither give up nor despair, If thou dost not invariably succeed in acting from right principles.
Persistence is a virtue and a belief about oneself that every individual who has ever excelled in any endeavor has possessed. It is a common word that individuals who have become outstanding at their craft often use to describe how they accomplished their goals in life. They were able to steadfastly continue pursuing their goal, refusing to yield to the opposition. Many traders have lost several fortunes in the pursuit of their ultimate goal. The perseverance they demonstrated is common to all successful people. The ability to pursue a desired
outcome with tenacious perseverance is a quality that every highly successful individual has developed.
It is one thing to perform a single act requiring control of your beliefs, confidence, or courage. It is another thing altogether to continue using empowering beliefs, possessing confidence and courage for a prolonged period of time in spite of continued opposition. A mental fatigue tends to overcome your emotions when you must persist in a course of action for a prolonged period of time. When you have persistence, you are able to fortify your beliefs while pursuing a difficult course of action until the desired outcome is accomplished. Without a firm character trait of persistence, no successful individual would be able to
overcome the challenges encountered while in the pursuit of excellence. Without the virtue of perseverance, no outstanding trader would be able to attain the outcome he or she desires. Individuals who are able to remain persistent will be able to overcome cowardice,
stubbornness, and other fears.
One challenge posed by persistence is that it is often mistaken for stubbornness (which is a major vice). Stubborn people will not abandon a course of action when they should. Stubborn people will not be receptive to the idea that the present course of action is not working. In order to become outstanding, people must be flexible in their thinking. Isn't it interesting that as people age, their minds as well as their bodies often become more rigid?
All outstanding individuals have mastered the ability to control their mind, maintain faith that they will accomplish their goal, maintain confidence in the face of challenges, adhere to the discipline required, and remain persistent in the pursuit of their outcomeall the while remaining flexible in their tactics and approach. Mentally people need to see that the outcome they are experiencing is not what they desire. Consequently they must have the flexibility to modify their approach until the outcome is aligned with their desires. Delusional individuals continue doing the same thing, all the while thinking that they will get a different outcome. Traders are confronted with a multitude of constantly changing market variables.
The mental willingness to persistently pursue their outcome in spite of seemingly
insurmountable challenges will guarantee that eventually the traders will accomplish their goals.
Let me ask you another question: How long do we allow a toddler to persist in the attempt to walk before we stop trying to teach? Naturally we do not place an arbitrary limit on how long it will take the child to learn to walk. Likewise we do not place a time limit on our attempt to teach a child how to speak. Then why is it that so many adults apply themselves in learning a new skill only for some arbitrary length of time? They are happy if they learn what they desire within that arbitrary length of time. All too often however, when they are unsuccessful in learning within that arbitrary period, they simply give up. We all know people who have done thisin many cases, it is ourselves!
There are few things more frustrating in life than attempting to master a new skill and consistently not succeeding. Persistence in the face of adversity is a virtue that all too many people ignore. All famous and successful people achieved their position because they had the ability to persevere. All traders who consistently make profits do so because they learned to persist in the face of adversity until they won.
The ability to possess a tenacious persistence requires well-founded empowering beliefs, a strong feeling of faith, confidence originating from faith but based on abilities, and a well- disciplined mind that promotes a strong feeling of courage, which allows you to trust your intuition.
You can constantly improve your level of persistence in everything by remembering how important it actually is. The critical point to remember is that there is a fine line between persistence and stubbornness. You must constantly be aware of how you can often accomplish your goals more quickly and even more easily by changing your beliefs and strategies. As Anthony Robbins wisely observes: ''Everyone I meet knows more than me in a particular area, and I know something more than anybody else in a particular area." As you persistently apply yourself to a given endeavor, always remember that there may be someone who has already figured out an easier way to accomplish what you are striving for.
This is a fairly short chapter; however, it is very important. Every successful trader has a core virtue of persistence. It is a critical virtue. Without the ability to remain persistent in the face of seemingly endless adversity, you will never reach the outcome that you desire.