How you think about the activity of trading in the world has a powerful influence on the planning preparation and execution of your trading plan.
Robert Pirsig describes the mindset of Grail seekers in his excellent book Zen and the Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance. He called it the romantic approach and associated with things like the hippie movement, bohemians, the “dabblers in art” crowd.
He described them humanely as people in search of a spiritual connection that was intuitively satisfying to their desire or dream of connecting to the world as it should be on, it’s highest quality plane of existence.
I will be among the first to honor and value the search for meaning in life long journeys in pursuit of excellence. I respect and support the master craftsmen’s attention to detail in small things and in all things.
But most of all I admire and aspire to the master craftsmen’s appreciation of the art, wisdom, knowledge and goodness that lives in his hands, heart and mind in which he seeks to manifest in the world through right thought and right action. He comes from his center to speak his truth to the world in a quiet, humble, human voice. It acknowledges both the possibilities of the human spirit as well as the shortcomings of those who dream big dreams.
The master craftsman knows better than anyone that he is not perfect in an absolute sense but that his appreciation and pursuit of perfection, his perfection, is perfection. It includes an awareness of the mistakes we will make along the way and a sensible and routine approach to managing risk, doing no harm, caring for tools and their workplace, cultivating calm and patience and then acting with appropriate trigger when the preparations have been made and right action must be called forth to be in harmony with his craft.
Compare this pursuit of perfection with the unachievable, idyllic, overly spiritual, almost narcissism of those in pursuit of the holy Grail.
The quest seeker can never be satisfied at all until the moment of ultimate satisfaction when the Grail is received. Everything short of that moment is filled with yearning and manic-depressive emotions that bounced from ecstasy to despair based on the interpretation of the moment.
The craftsmen who aspires to be a master craftsman respects his art, acquires knowledge of that which is knowable, appreciates that which cannot be known, seeks to live with grace while taking care of business in the usual way.
He accumulates perfection in small daily contributions of virtue, of life lived well and he puts that tiny little piece of the Grail in his spiritual bank. He values the journey and appreciates the way and has earned his rest and just rewards whenever he gets there in his own good time.
Choose your metaphors wisely.