Jonah Lehrer of The Frontal Cortex shared some important new research on the importance of grit. We can use his thoughts to help us become better traders.
The second takeaway involves the growing recognition of “non-cognitive” skills like grit and self-control. While such traits have little or nothing to do with intelligence (as measured by IQ scores), they often explain a larger share of individual variation when it comes to life success. It doesn’t matter if one is looking at retention rates at West Point or teacher performance within the Teach for America program or success in the spelling bee: Factors like grit are often the most predictive variables of real world performance. Thomas Edison was right: even genius is mostly just perspiration.
So congratulations you were not born unable to become a highly successful trader! The way you become great is all under your control. Think about trading. Visualize certain trades. Watch film of recorded trades. Talk to your desk about trades. Talk to your mentor about trades. Keep a detailed trading journal. And do all of this even when you don’t feel like it. Do it every day. Do it consistently. These are all things you can do and all are the deliberate practice necessary to become great.
A few of our guys caught some of LO today. We met in my office and I challenged them to crucify themselves as to how to be bigger, and where, and responsibly, and that made sense to them in that LO trade. If they did that that would turn their solid P&L day into a great trading day. It’s all about the grind. You gonna take care of that weekend review? It’s all about how much grit you have.
You can be better tomorrow than you are today!
Mike Bellafiore
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