A Sharp Mental Edge

Why do you need to sharpen your mental edge? A sharp, mental edge means you are aware and alert, ready to take advantage of opportunities that come your way. Depending on your personality and background, cultivating the proper mental edge may be difficult, but not impossible. It is just a matter of working hard to achieve your goals.

In his book, "A Strategy for Daily Living," Dr. Ari Kiev observes, "A successful life does not result from chance, fate, or good fortune, but from a succession of successful days lived in pursuit of a worthy pursuit." Dr. Kiev points out that you can work toward your goal every day, day after day, and in the end, you will achieve your goals. Perhaps you will make more progress on some days than others, but what is most important is that you never give up and spend every day working toward your goal. That's what it takes to develop the proper mental edge for trading. Developing the proper mental edge is a process that takes time. It's a result of gaining the wealth of experience you need to succeed.

Many people make the mistake of thinking they need to be an overnight success. It’s part of the American dream. The media reinforces the myth, which is sometimes true but the exception rather than the rule. Most people are not lucky enough to achieve success over night. It takes time. When you work under the assumption that you can be at the right place at the right time and succeed without talent, hard work, and a wealth of experience, you will feel disappointment when you face setbacks. It is more useful to acknowledge that success takes time for most people.

It’s also vital to admit that you are human and that as a human, you have mental limits. You cannot do it all. You have to work with what you have. You also have a limited amount of psychological energy to achieve your goals. One of the best ways to maximize your psychological energy is free up mental energy that is used up by other psychological processes. For example, handling stress, and mulling over interpersonal conflicts uses up precious psychological energy. By spending leisure time resolving interpersonal conflicts or effectively coping with daily hassles, you will have more psychological energy to devote to achieving your goals.

You can only work with what you have, but if you take the proper steps, you can free up poorly allocated psychological resources, and allow more resources to be dedicated to achieving your goals. By taking concerted measures to free up energy, you can expand the limits of your mind, and sharpen your mental edge.