What the ice takes, the ice keeps- Sir Ernest Shackelton’s Endurance

That’s a sentence right out of one of the journals kept during this voyage as they heard the hull of the ship crushing under the compacting ice, like a piece of paper that you ball up in your fist to watch it disappear into the bottom of the bin. I can’t imagine what it would be like to row in icy waters; waters so icy that when it was your turn to give up the oars, they had to be chipped out of your grip. And yet because these men were given purpose by their leader Sir Ernest Shackelton, they were single threaded in purpose-to survive, to return home, and in the best spirits. Shackelton knew that if the men did not feel directed purpose existed in their lives, they would give up the desire to live and return home. He had chosen these men out of thousands for their will, determination and strength of character, and he knew they were capable of endurance under extreme measures; he needed only to have them focus on a directed purpose.

Why do you trade? Really, stop reading, and ask yourself. Is there a tangible directed purpose? Having purpose increases your ability to endure, and your ability to endure is decided by you, and how important you have deemed the purpose. Many of us do not realize that we decide the boundaries; what’s too much to take, we think it is our body that gives out, or our mind that gives out – that determines the boundaries. But it is not….it is our will, our desire that must give out before we fail to endure. In almost every interview I do, someone asks, ‘what’s it take to be a good trader?’ Knowledge of how the market works is critical, but much more than that…it takes will, determination, raw desire. Without it, we soon become the ship being crushed by the massive rigid flows of ice…we become the piece of paper at the bottom of the basket.

You can never become an expert trader without sustained endurance. You cannot have sustained endurance without raw desire and will. You cannot have raw desire and will unless you see and are emotionally attached to a purpose. Simple as that.

The market is like the ice…what it takes, it keeps. I’m not really talking about money (though it does do that), I’m talking about the will and determination that it seems to bleed you of continually; it never gives you that back – ever. How do you endure when you keep getting knocked down? You focus on a directed purpose. That and that alone, is the endless resource of fuel that will drive you to success.

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