I am sure most of the questions on the eve of the third round of the British Open revolve around Tiger Woods absence. “What’s wrong with Tiger?” “Is he losing his mental edge?” “Is he hurt?” “Has something gone wrong in his personal life?” “Why so many mistakes?”
Here is my question: Why can we not celebrate the fact that Tiger Woods is human? He is human isn’t he? I know he is as mortal as we all are. That is what we all have in common. Why do we insist on him winning every tournament he enters? He won the last tournament he entered.
I think someone who always wins dies a slow death. You know, the Alexander the Great syndrome. “He [Alexander] wept with sorrow,” Plutarch said, “Because there were no more worlds to conquer.”
Even if you are not a Tiger fan, you have to appreciate his talent, his accomplishments, his failures, and his mistakes. Which leads us to the topic of this post.
RESPONSIBLE ADMISSION
Tiger readily admits he makes mistakes. Just today, in the post tournament interview, he said, “I hit some bad tee shots, a couple bad irons, didn’t get up and down. Kept making mistake after mistake.” Did you notice what Tiger said? He made mistakes. He did not blame his poor play on the weather, on the conditions of the course, on any physical ailment. He blamed himself.
If you cannot admit that you are responsible for your trading, you will never become a successful trader. Blaming the market, or the market maker, or a news event, or the screaming kids, or the system you use, or another trader, just won’t work. Take responsibility for your actions. Admit it and go on. You will never be right 100% of the time. For Tiger there will be another tournament and there will be plenty more British Opens, but for now it is off to the practice range as he prepares for the next battle on the links. Prepare yourself for the next battle. You can bet there are traders prepared to take advantage of your weaknesses: not admitting to responsibility is just one of them.
CAPITALIZE ON YOUR MISTAKES
How do you capitalize on your mistakes? Besides, are you not supposed to capitalize on your success? Yes you are, but if you cannot capitalize on your mistakes you will never be able to fully appreciate success. Success is born of mistakes. Why do you think Tiger is on the practice range before AND after a round of golf? So he can work on (= learn from) his mistakes. The next tournament he wins will be a result of working on his past mistakes.
The next time you make a trade and it does not go as planned do not question the rules you follow, ask yourself if you followed the rules. There is a difference you know.
If you did follow your rules then you did not really make a mistake because with the market anything can happen.
If you did not follow the rules then work on doing so for the next trade.
There was a period of time in my trading when I would “jump the gun” on a trade. I believed that since my trade was setting up I could just go ahead and pull the trigger and get in early. Big mistake and not one of my rules. I made it up. I admit it. Next time follow the rules. Work on following the rules.
ACCEPT THE PAST AS THE FUTURE
Mistakes can remind us about how much control we have over our future success. When we accept the mistakes we make we are actually creating our future. Put another way: Our future is a result of how we deal with our present mistakes. Make sense? Might as well face the mistakes, accept them, capitalize on them, and look forward to the next trade.
So now the focus is on Tom Watson. Wait a minute. He is immortal, isn’t he?