When a man points a finger at someone else, he should remember that four of his fingers are pointing at himself…Louis Nizer
In trading and living, the easiest way to deal with situations where you lose money, feel betrayed, hurt or wronged is to adopt the role of victim. We have become a nation of “victims” so much that people are advertising with license plates, caps and T-shirts. Last week I saw two license plates: VICTIM and IVICTIM. People who see themselves as victims love to flaunt it and get lots of publicity over it. Are we as a nation obsessed with victims? If so-why?
It’s easy to take the role of victim, since we live in a world where most are looking for the shortest and fastest way out of a situation. In a society of instant gratification where we want it all and want it now, the default mechanism is to “victim.” It’s the quick and dirty way to get it over with-just point a finger.
People who wear victimhood as a badge of courage get lots of attention or what is called “secondary gain.” Thus, there are interpersonal and sociological components that run very deep. People who put themselves in the victim position often receive great sympathy and attention from others. Perhaps for the first time in their life, someone notices them, writes about them, puts them on TV or starts a cause in their name. This serves to further encourage and reinforce the state of victimhood.
In the financial markets, you see it every day. It’s always someone else’s fault that you lost money on a trade. It’s the hedge funds, the high frequency traders, the financial media, your newsletter guru, the short sellers, the day traders, the speculators, the market manipulators, the Plunge Protection Team…..the list is endless.
What purpose does this serve? Why is victim the default?
The answer is—just like making money trading the markets—simple but not easy.
Blaming and pointing fingers absolves you from any degree of personal responsibility. In this way, you resist looking within and asking the most critical question ” What is my part this?” For most of you, exploration of the inner self can be a lengthy and painful process. Looking outward and projecting fault to others is fast and easy. The former is freeing, while the latter imprisons.
Being a victim takes power from you. It directs energy away from your authentic source and directs it outward (as anger or resentment) to someone or something else. This often leads to mental and physical illness because anger directed outward drains energy and lowers the immune system defenses. This is one reason that it is not uncommon for victims to develop heart attack, stroke or debilitating metabolic disease. Looking for causes outside of the self is an exercise in futility and self-destruction. It represents repudiation of a basic tenet of serene living, i.e., you have no control over what other people thing, believe or do. The only locus of control is within in. That is your power. By relinquishing your power to others, you take energy from yourself and this draws down your mental, emotional, physical and spiritual systems. It depletes your energy and life force and literally makes you ill.
Life is a creative process. You create your reality every minute—often without being aware of it. You can have, do, be and manifest whatever you imagine if you are committed and prepared to do the requisite work.
The three most powerful words you can ever say are: I Am Responsible.
Personal responsibility is a mantra, a vibration, a leap of the human spirit and life force. The essence of taking personal responsibility is that you are accountable for everything you believe, think and do. Your life is yours, your choices are yours. At this very moment, you are putting into action everything you want and need.
The act of taking personal responsibility for every experience—beginning with your unconscious assumptions and unspoken inner dialog—is the first step in returning to the true source of your power and unhooking your ego from its blaming and excuse-making.
This act of making yourself accountable is perhaps the most critical part of evolving from immature reactivity to mature responsibility-both as a trader and a human being. In doing this, you expand beyond the limiting constraints of your ego into a space of unbounded opportunity and unlimited potential.
There are some 50 trillion cells in your body primed for energetic renewal. Each moment of the day, armed with the power of personal responsibility, you will continue to renew yourself. You will see yourself living life as a work of art, rather than a chaotic reaction to external events. Subtly, you will find yourself moving forward into a new freedom and a new happiness. In this way, every moment is the perfect moment…and you are always in it.
Where you are, the world is. Without your transformation, there can be no transformation of the world…J. Krishnamutri
About the Author:
Janice Dorn, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Dorn has traded gold futures full-time since 1993, and is an international authority on money. She is believed to be the only M.D., Ph.D. Psychiatrist and Brain Scientist in the world who trades and manages a subscription based-website.
She has written over 1500 publications on trader/investor psychology and mass psychology of the financial markets.
Her first book entitled Personal Responsibility: The Power Of You was published in 2008.
www.thetradingdoctor.com
