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Page 37
I would like to submit that a major factor was the level of faith. The professional had more faith in excelling at the sport than did the amateur. This enabled the professional to endure more training, more pain, more punishment to the body and the ego. People who lack faith are unable to overcome the hardships that life presents. They succumb to the challenges that they encounter, and never accomplish the success that they seek.
As Hannibal said, ''We will either find a way or make a way." His level of faith (and certainty) was extremely high. All outstanding leaders have always believed that they would eventually accomplish their goal. They were always certain that the outcome would be as expected. They might have not known how they would accomplish their goal, but they knew that they would accomplish it. Thomas Edison performed more than 10,000 experiments before finally succeeding with the incandescent light bulb. He had faith that eventually he would figure out how to build an incandescent bulb. He also believed that every experiment that failed to produce light was valuable nonetheless. Although the outcome was not what he desired, he felt that he obtained valuable insight into what to do (or not do) in the next experiment.
Another analogy is to an airplane pilot. Upon departing from the airport, the pilot is certain that his plane will arrive at its intended destination. He has faith that the procedures and training that he and his crew have mastered will get them to their goal. Did you ever think about how often the airline captain, and the autopilot, needs to adjust the direction of the airplane? Regardless of storms and high winds, the certainty of the pilot remains unwaveringbecause of faith.
Trading is the same. Great traders always have total faith that regardless of what the markets do, they will accomplish their goal. Do great traders have total certainty on where prices are going? No. How could they? Yet great traders have faith that their methodology and belief structure will in the end allow them to reach their goal. How is this possible? Outstanding traders are certain that the methodology they have so painstakingly researched will generate occasional losses, that the markets will be choppy, that the finance ministers of the world will cause the markets to be volatile, and so on. Through it all the faith that they will triumph remains steadfast.
Let's say you are a stock trader and you follow IBM. How do you know when there is overwhelming "continuity of thought" about where the price of IBM is heading? Easy. The price is going straight up or downthe trend is clearly identifiable. Likewise you know that there is no continuity of thought when the market is very choppywhen it is going sideways.

 
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