ence. However, everything we would find in the environment toincrease our understanding already existed, unless we think of somethingcompletely new on our own. The only thing that stopped us from findingit before was the energy of what we already knew, blocking what wehaven't learned yet. The problem is that if learning something new meansthat we have to change what we have already learned, we instinctively seemto refuse to do it, regardless of how inappropriate what we have learnedmay be relative to what we would need to know to experience satisfaction.Once we have learned something, it will act as a force to block otherinformation that would result in the perception of other choices. Evenchildren will resist the acceptance of information that is contrary to whatthey have already learned, regardless of how dysfunctional their knowledgemay be.
All learning is synonymous with change, whether we are changingsomething we already know or learning something completely new. If werefuse to change (adapt) the inside—adding to what we know to createmore distinctions and change our perspective—then we are not learningwhat we need to know to experience something different in the outerenvironment. If there is no change on the inside, there will be noperceived change in the outside, thereby locking us into recurring cycles ofpain and dissatisfaction. What's more, we will continue to suffer until thepain becomes so great that we are left with no choice other than to reassesshow we go about managing our lives, that is, reassessing the usefulness ofour beliefs.
WHAT WE DO KNOW BECOMES OBSOLETE
Besides the cycles of dissatisfaction that our current set of limitations locksus into (what we know blocks what we haven't learned yet), there is aneven more practical reason for learning how to adapt. All of us are forcedto interact with a constantly changing physical environment to fulfill ourneeds and achieve our goals. The way we interact with the environment,what choices we perceive in relationship to what is actually available fromthe environment's perspective, and what we do in relationship to what weperceive are all a function of what we have learned. Now, if you willrecall, everything that constitutes the physical environment is in constantmotion. Anything that is in motion (which includes everything made ofatoms and molecules) is also changing over time. So change is an automaticfunction of the physical environment.
However, the mental environment is composed of positively ornegatively charged energy that carries information about our experiences,
117what we have learned that forms into organizational patterns that we callbeliefs and concepts about the nature of the physical environment. Energyis not made of atoms and molecules and therefore does not change overtime. In fact, energy exists in a nonphysical dimension outside of time as weperceive it with our senses. Electrical energy or chemically producedelectrical energy can be stored just the same as in a battery and theinformation it carries is stored with it. That is, time has no effect on thequality of this energy (the degree of the positive or negative charge) and theways in which it affects our perception of environmental information andhow it acts as a force on our behavior.
Changing our mental environment to correspond with the constantexternal changes going on in the physical environment is not automatic.The information stored in our mental environment about the nature of thephysical environment can remain unchanged for years or a lifetime, for thatmatter, regardless of how outdated, useless, or even harmful it may be. Andfurthermore this outdated knowledge will continue to act as a force on ourbehavior, causing us to interact with the environment in completelyinappropriate ways relative to the conditions. So even if we are experiencingsatisfaction in certain areas of our lives, we cannot take it for granted thatthe conditions that we have learned to interact with will stay as we knowthem to exist. The outside conditions are in constant motion, presenting uswith different forces to learn about and adapt to. In the marketenvironment, for example, the changes in conditions are highly visible andusually moment to moment, whereas in other types of environments thatwe typically operate in, the forces of change work a little slower and are lessvisible, but they are changing nevertheless. The problem is that theconditions will change and we won't necessarily recognize these changeseven if we start to experience some degree of dissatisfaction, unless we areconstantly vigilant that even though we have learned something that works,it can still become obsolete.
118CHAPTER 12
The Dynamics ofGoal Achievement
The extent to which we fulfill our needs and achieve our goals with anydegree of satisfaction is, first, a function of our being able to recognize ourneeds and formulate our goals. This is not as simple as it sounds. Ournatural sense of curiosity and our attractions are very powerful inner forcesthat create a state of need or put us in a state of imbalance with thephysical environment until the needs are satisfied. When we feel theseattractions to certain activities, people, or objects in the environment, it isoften difficult to visualize the possibilities or formulate any plans becauseof other inner forces in the form of beliefs, associations, or memories thatact as barriers. We need to understand the relationship and possibleconflicts between what we need or feel very attracted to and these otherinner forces that in a sense say no.
The extent to which we fulfill our needs and achieve our goals with anydegree of satisfaction is, second, a function of the degree to which weunderstand the nature of the external environmental forces we have tointeract with to fulfill our needs and achieve our goals. (The depth of ourunderstanding will correlate directly with the way in which we expressourselves in the environment to create the effect that we want.) Third, it isa function of the repertoire of skills that we have developed to interact withthe environment and, fourth, a function of our ability to execute thoseskills.
Any differences between what we wanted, expected, desired, or neededand what we got is simply an indication of the degree to which we haven'tlearned what we needed to know or evidence that we don't have the
119appropriate skills to do what needed to be done. Included as a factor in thefirst category—where we haven't learned what we needed to know—is ourability or lack thereof to objectively (without illusion) assess the availabilityof what we wanted or needed from the environment's perspective. In otherwords, what we wanted may have not been available to begin with oravailable in the quantity we wanted or in the time frame we wanted orneeded, and we didn't have the mental framework to make the kinds ofdistinctions to indicate the actual availability beforehand.
We also have to consider that what we wanted may have actually beenavailable but unperceivable, as a result of not having learned to make theappropriate distinctions, which would, in turn, give us the kind ofperspective where we could notice its availability. In these kinds ofsituations we usually end up saying to ourselves, "I wish," or "If only I hadknown that then," when we find out afterward what we didn't know at thetime would have made a difference on how we "saw" things. Often,however, we never find out that what we wanted and didn't get was onlyone minor shift in perspective. Not knowing, of course, that the reasonwhy we didn't get it was because we just didn't know there was somethingmore we needed to learn. If we had the mental framework to make theappropriate distinctions, we can assume that we would have, unlesssomething was blocking our perception.
I might add here that when we interact with other people, if we use forceand manipulation to get what otherwise would be unavailable, what we aredoing is forcing them to behave outside of their beliefs. If their beliefs wereconsistent with what we wanted from them, then we wouldn't need to useforce or manipulation because a state of harmony would exist. We don'tneed to use force or manipulation on someone to do something that theyalready believe in. Whenever we do, it creates a state of imbalance in themthat they would normally rectify by some means of revenge that we wouldjust have to deal with at some point in the future. As a general observationof the human condition that goes along with this, most of us spend ourlives trying to change what is in front of us to suit the makeup of our innerenvironment, when all we need to do is change the way we think about whatis in front of us and we will change the quality of our experience of it.
In the second category—where we don't have the appropriate skills todo what needed to be done—we may recognize the most appropriate set ofsteps to take and also objectively assess the availability of what we want,but that doesn't mean that we have the skills to execute those steps. It ispossible to underestimate the skills required in relation to the conditions toaccomplish what we want (i.e., we don't know any better) or we couldoverestimate our abilities in relation to the conditions. Furthermore, evenif we have learned the appropriate skills, there may be any number of beliefsor fears that act as barriers or limiting forces that will prevent us fromproperly executing the steps leading to what we want to accomplish. Thesebeliefs or fears can be something that we have a conscious awareness of, or
120they can be completely subconscious. I am defining subconscious as anyexperience that we don't have immediate access to with our consciousthought process. For example, someone could be afraid of going into thewater, be conscious of the fear itself, but not have the slightest recollectionof a painful experience associated with water to know why he can'texpress himself in that way.
There is a very important distinction here that you need to make betweenrecollection and memories. What we experience in the environmentbecomes a memory. Our ability to bring that memory into our consciousthought process is recollection. Some memories are easy to recall becausethe pathways to wherever the memory is stored are used a lot. In otherwords, we remember how to remember certain memories. However, thereare many other experiences that become subconscious. These are memoriesthat we have either forgotten how to remember because we don't use thepathways or we were never really fully aware of what was being perceivedby our senses in the first place. However, the point here is that none ofwhat goes in to the mental environment disappears or no longer exists justbecause we don't remember it. Our ability to recall consciously anyparticular belief that we are taught as a child or our ability to recall anyparticular experience is not a factor in the dynamics of how any of thesemental components act as a force on our behavior. Neither is physical clocktime for that matter. Our conscious recollection of experiences may fadewith time, but time has no impact on the electrical charge (quality ofenergy) or the amount of emotional force behind the charge. For example,the old adage that time heals all wounds is not applicable to the mentalenvironment. Time will heal wounds to the body because the body is a partof a physical reality where everything is in motion and changing over time.However, time has no impact on the memories stored in our mentalenvironment because the mental environment is not composed of physicalmatter. It is composed of stored energy that does not change with thepassing of time.
Emotional wounds (negatively charged mental energy) will never goaway unless we learn how to release ourselves from them or change them.People think time heals emotional wounds, because after years ofexperiences they either inadvertently let go of the pain or build a system ofbeliefs as a defense to shield themselves from it. In fact, our seeminglyinfinite capacity to resist acknowledging the injury and hiding the effects ofemotional wounds makes them very elusive. We almost always know whenwe have injured our bodies in some way. If you break your leg, you know itbecause you won't be able to walk. If it doesn't heal properly, you willknow that too because you won't be able to walk the same as before or itmay still hurt to walk. Yet, emotional wounds are not always so self-evident,because we can always structure our beliefs to make it seem as if we are notresponsible for the cycles of dissatisfaction and emotional pain weexperience in our lives, thus insulating ourselves from the effects of our
121own negatively charged energy.
This is being pointed out because I have found that most people have agreat deal of difficulty believing that something that happened to them intheir childhood can still affect how they perceive their environment andhow they express themselves now. Although, when you think about it, howcould it be any other way? Everything that we experience becomes acomponent part of our mental environment. All the parts then act as aninner cause, affecting how we experience the outside environment. Again,we don't have to be able to remember why we learned to be afraid ofsomething to feel the fear. We don't even have to consciouslyacknowledge to ourselves that the fear exists because we can alwaysrationalize that it is something else or use drugs or alcohol to block ourawareness of it. However, regardless of how hard we try to stop ourselvesfrom feeling what is inside of us, the feelings are still there; otherwise ourefforts to block them wouldn't be necessary in the first place. The fear willexist because the energy, somewhere in our memory of some previousexperience, will cause us to feel it, regardless of whether or not we allowourselves to have a recollection of the source.
Memories, beliefs, and associations do not go away with time, substanceabuse, or trying to put them somewhere in the subconscious that makes itmore difficult to gain a conscious awareness. They will continue to act as asource of energy for the way in which we pick and choose information fromthe environment and how we express ourselves, for as long as we live,unless we learn how to manage them. Did you ever wonder why it was sodifficult to break an unwanted habit or why it can be so difficult to executesome well-thought-out plan you were really committed to? It is difficultbecause of what is already inside of us that acts as resistance to our intent.An intent to do something is not necessarily a belief. In other words, out ofeverything we intend to do, some of those intentions will be supported byour beliefs, memories, and associations, and some will not. When there issupport, our efforts will seem effortless, because there is no conflictbetween any beliefs, memories, and associations and what we intend to do.However, if our intents are not in harmony with our beliefs, memories, orassociations, doing becomes a struggle, where we can't stay focused,become easily distracted, or make what most people would characterize as"stupid mistakes."
Take, for example, someone who smokes, decides it's a bad habit, and asa result, commits himself to quitting. Thus his intent is to express himselfas a nonsmoker. However, after he has smoked his last cigarette, his beliefsin being a smoker will immediately start drawing his attention to cigarettesuntil it builds to the point where he craves a cigarette and then has one. Whatwe have here is a classic conflict between an intent that is not only inconflict with other beliefs but the intent itself has no real structuralsupport. That is, there isn't a corollary belief that says, "I am anonsmoker." The energy for his behavior not to smoke will have to come
122from his conscious willingness to be a different person in this area of hislife. However, his willingness doesn't instantly negate all the energy in thebeliefs he has built up over the years in being a smoker. These beliefs willhave a great deal of energy to act on his conscious attention (noticingcigarettes in the environment and thinking about cigarettes) and hisbehavior (to pick one up and smoke it).
We could even have inner support (beliefs, memories, and associations)for what we intend to do and still have difficulties following through withour plans because of other conflicting beliefs. Behavior that would fall intothe "stupid mistake” category is most often the result of subconscious orforgotten beliefs that are in direct conflict with our intents. Trading is aperfect example to illustrate this. Many people devote a great deal of theirtime, energy, and financial resources to expressing themselves as traders.They learn a lot about trading—they are even highly regarded by their peersfor what they know about the market—but still can't execute their tradesproperly or the way they planned. There are traders who can consistentlymake money day after day until they get to certain threshold levels and thenpromptly give all their profits back to the market in one or two trades. Theway they give their money back is completely inconsistent with their tradingstyle while they were making money. After they have lost a sufficientamount of money, they go back to the way they normally trade and start theprocess all over again. This kind of behavior is no accident. It happens for areason.
In each of these situations these traders certainly had developedeffective, workable strategies to be successful—they definitely had somehighly structured beliefs to support their expression as a trader. However,what they haven't done is identify and decharge a whole host of otherbeliefs (both conscious and subconscious) that are in direct conflict withthe endeavor of trading or making money as a trader. For example, thereare many beliefs related to one's religious upbringing that are in directconflict with the whole concept of speculating. And what is trading buttaking money away from other traders with no services rendered? Thiskind of activity isn't consistent with most religious teachings. Anothertypical example is most people grow up with very powerful beliefs relatedto the work ethic. They have very rigid definitions about what constituteswork and how one earns one's money. Trading doesn't exactly fit into mostof these definitions either.
So regardless of how highly developed one's trading strategies become,the act of trading will still violate the integrity of any belief that is inconflict with the act of trading or making money from trading. Eventuallythe unexpressed energy accumulating in these conflicting beliefs will buildto the point where the trader will find himself behaving in a mannercompletely inconsistent with his trading rules or intent to make money.Often, he will even be aware that he is about to make a trading error, watchhimself do it, and at the same time either feel powerless to stop himself or
123won't stop himself until he has lost enough money to compensate for theimbalance in his mental environment.
Now when these kinds of things happen, if we don't understand what isgoing on, it could cause us to feel inadequate in some way, if we judgeourselves harshly. Or we could be overcome by a sense of powerlessnessand fear because we seemingly have no control over these unidentifiedinternal forces that can exert so much control over our behavior. Withoutany awareness of the problem or effective tools for dealing with it, mostpeople will attempt to build mental barriers to try and block these forcesfrom manifesting in their behavior. Obviously, they don't work, whichmakes the whole situation even scarier. This is where the substance abusecomes into play. For example, a person who is an alcoholic knows he is aheavy drinker. At the most fundamental level a person drinks obsessivelyto separate his intellect from these inner forces he believes he has no controlover. The more he blocks, the more the forces build and the more he has todrink to block. The more he drinks, the more everything deteriorates inhis outer environment as a reflection of his inner environment. Eventually,the physical environment, his body, or both deteriorate so badly that hecan no longer block the true state of his condition. He then acknowledgesthat "Yes, I am an alcoholic, and I need to change," meaning that "Yes, Ineed to address the issues in my life that caused me to start drinking in thefirst place."
The point of all this is: learning how to forget our painful memories orignoring the existence of beliefs that don't support our intents does not inanyway reduce their potential to cause us to behave in certain ways. If wewant to change unwanted behavior, we have to change the internal source ofthat behavior. Releasing ourselves from the limitations of our fears byhealing our emotional wounds, changing the polarity of a belief, ordecharging it altogether is something that we have to learn how to do bylearning how to manage mental energy. If people knew of some way ofmanaging their beliefs, memories, and associations, then the kind of painfulcycles of forced awareness described earlier would never get started in thefirst place.
Thus far I have identified three forces in constant operation in our lives.First are all the external environmental forces that have the potential to actas a cause, where we, as individuals, experience an effect. Some of theseoutside environmental forces we will have some degree of understanding ofand others we will not. Our degree of understanding and insight along withthe extent to which we can act on what we know is directly proportional tothe degree of satisfaction we will experience as we interact with theenvironment to fulfill our needs and achieve our goals. Implied within allthe external forces—whether we understand them or not—are all the forcesof change that automatically alter everything made of atoms and moleculesconsequently making what we do know—in terms of usefulness—obsoleteat some point in time. For example, the chair you are sitting in to read this
124book is deteriorating over time. At some point it will no longer be able tosupport any weight, making your belief in its stability obsolete.
Second are the deep inner forces of curiosity and attraction that compelus to explore, learn about, and interact with the environment in seeminglypredetermined ways. For example, there are things that we are naturallyinterested in learning about or learning how to do in relationship to all theother things that are available to learn about in the environment, but wehave no natural interest— like someone who always wanted to be amusician, fire-fighter, actor, or doctor and pursues these vocations resultingin feelings of deep satisfaction about their lives. However, if theenvironment forces us into areas where there is no natural interest, we willexperience an emptiness that can be very difficult to identify, only that itfeels like something is missing in our lives. What each of us as individualsis naturally curious about and attracted to in the environment come fromthe deepest levels of our existence. They act as very powerful forces of self-expression, compelling us to create in the physical environment the objectof our imagination or to pursue in the physical environment the object ofour interests, often in direct conflict with outside environmental forces aswell as inner mental forces in the form of what we have been taught tobelieve.
Third are the mental forces represented by our beliefs, memories, andassociations. Even though beliefs, memories, and associations are mentalforces, they are not the same as the forces of curiosity and attraction. Beliefs,memories, and associations exist exclusively as a result of the kinds ofexperiences we have with the physical environment. This is in contrast to theforces of curiosity and attraction that are in us before we are born andwould seem to be either predetermined in a spiritual sense or geneticallyencoded. Some of our beliefs, memories, and associations will act aspositive resources for interacting with the physical environment effectivelyand with some degree of satisfaction. Others, however, will have just theopposite effect. Many of our beliefs, memories, and associations areresources for failure, pain, and dissatisfaction because they lock us into onlyperceiving what we already know as well as cutting us off from our naturalsense of curiosity. In other words, they specifically act as forces to preventany further mental growth.
Now, since we have to interact with the physical environment to fulfillour needs and achieve our goals, the key to doing it to assure ourselves ofexperiencing greater levels of satisfaction is to acquire deeper levels ofinsight and understanding into the nature of these forces. That is, we needto stay in a constant state of learning. The only thing that really stops usfrom continuing to learn about the nature of these outside forces is themental forces in the form of beliefs, memories, and associations that buildup and as a result block our natural sense of curiosity, sometimes to thepoint of shutting down the learning process altogether.
There is some element of truth to the saying that you can't teach an old
125dog new tricks, except that it should really read "An old dog won't learnnew tricks." It's not that it is impossible for someone regardless of theirage to learn something new; the issue isn't ability. It is more a matter ofresistance and refusal. That refusal comes from the sum total ofeverything we already believe, in essence saying, "Forget it—I alreadyknow everything I need to know." Of course, the consequences to such astance toward the environment can be and often are devastating. And itinvariably always takes some truly devastating event or a series of thembefore someone who has this kind of attitude will acknowledge that the reasonfor their plight is that they just refuse to allow any changes in their mentalenvironment. Of course, this know-it-all attitude is very easy to recognize insomeone else; the trick is learning how to recognize it ourselves, because itexists in all of us as a natural function of the ways in which beliefs, memories,and associations manage information.
To stay in a constant state of learning we need to learn how to adapt. To adaptwe need to learn some specific mental techniques on how to consciously applyour thoughts to upgrade, modify, replace, or change the polarity (electricalcharge; of various components in our mental environment that act as limiting orinhibiting forces on our perception and behavior, preventing us from gaininggreater levels of correspondence with the physical environment. By consciouslyadapting, we are making ourselves available to learn how to fulfill our needs andachieve our goals in increasingly more satisfying ways. Note: Implied withinfulfilling our needs and achieving our goals is the need to explore the object of ourcuriosities and attractions, which also get blocked by our beliefs, associations,and memories.
To adapt, we need to choose not to resist learning and change. This requiresa willingness on our part to think outside of the limitations established by ourbeliefs, associations, and memories and a willingness to learn how to managemental energy so we can release ourselves from the negative effects of our painfulmemories. When we learn how to change the polarity of a painful memory, itisn't painful any longer. When the memory is decharged or drained of thenegatively charged energy, it will no longer have the potential to generate fear.Fear always limits the number of choices we perceive as available from theenvironment by the way it causes us to focus our attention on the object of ourfear. The net effect is we end up creating for ourselves exactly what we aretrying to avoid. It is important for you to note that, when we change thepolarity of a memory, it doesn't actually change the structure of the memory. Inother words, we don't forget the experience, so we can still use it as a part ofour repertoire of what we know about the nature of the physical environment.When we change the quality of energy of a memory from negative to positive,we negate the memory's potential to generate fear, thereby allowing us toperceive all the other choices for experience available from the envi-ronment in the same moment.
Preferably this willingness to change will come from somewhere otherthan out of desperation. The idea is to learn how to recognize what we need
126to know long before the conditions deteriorate to the levels of desperation.To do this requires that we incorporate into our mental system three veryfundamental assumptions that will help us to maintain a healthyrelationship with the environment and generate the energy behind thewillingness that we will need to start such a process, after whichexperiencing the benefits will act as the driving force behind ourwillingness.
The first assumption is that we haven't learned everything there is toknow. And, as a result, there are always going to be unknown forcesacting upon us until our understanding of everything outside of us evolvesto the point where we have simultaneous awareness of everything going onin the environment. The implications here are that we need to be in aconstant state of learning from the moment we are born to the moment wedie because our intellect has not yet evolved to the point of simultaneousperception of all information that is available in any given moment. Untilthen, we are forced to pick and choose the information we experiencebased on what we have learned to believe.
The second assumption is that what we have learned to believe either byforce—unwillingly thrust upon us, as an expression of the outsideenvironment—or by choice—as an expression of inner forces that operatewithin us like our curiosity and attractions—may not be very useful withrespect to fulfilling ourselves in some satisfying manner.
The third assumption is that what we have learned that is useful andworks to our satisfaction is still subject to change because of the changingenvironmental conditions. In other words, what we may need to know toexperience more satisfaction and happiness in our lives will often have toreplace partially or invalidate completely what we have already learned.Refusing to change what we have already learned is virtually the same assaying that we already know everything there is to know and don't need tolearn anything further. Of course, we could easily know if we didn't needto adapt because we would be in a perpetual state of satisfaction. Anythingless than a feeling of satisfaction from our interaction with the environmentis an indication that we need to learn something.
THE PERFECTION OF THE MOMENT
If you operate out of the foregoing assumptions, you will begin to recognizehow every moment becomes a perfect indication of your state ofdevelopment and what you need to do to improve yourself. For example,let's look at a hypothetical trader whose goal is to make money from histrading. He perceives what he believes to be an opportunity to do so andputs on a trade. However, he is operating out of a fear of being wrong. As aresult, his fear will act on his perception of information to block from hisawareness any evidence that would indicate that he is wrong. Remember thatfear is a natural mechanism to warn us of threatening conditions so that
127we can avoid them. Now what is threatening about being wrong? In thiscase, as in most all cases, it is all the accumulated pain and humiliationinside of him from his past experiences. If the market—or anyone else forthat matter—presents him with any information that conflicts with what hewants, his fear will cause him to distort it perceptually or he will angrilyscream at the person who offered such information "Don't tell me that" sothat he can avoid feeling the pain already inside of him from his past. Ineffect, his fears will create for him the very experience that he is trying toavoid because he is avoiding information that would indicate what themarkets have to offer in relationship to what he wants or expects. If themarket does move against him, he probably won't confront the evidenceuntil the pain of doing so is less than the pain of not confronting it,meaning that his losses accumulate to the point where it is easier to admithe is wrong than to suffer any more losses. The results of our efforts will bereflected in the environment as the sum total of who we are in any givenmoment, as it was for our trader in the foregoing example. A goal is anintent that we have projected out into the environment. It is a need to befulfilled in some future moment. The need arises out of a recognition ofsome lack. Recognizing the need automatically focuses our attention toscan the environment for ways (paths) to fulfill that need. Theenvironmental information we perceive (quality and depth of insight) willbe a function of the number of distinctions we can make minus anyinformation that gets blocked by any fears we are operating out of. How weexpress ourselves to fulfill the need will be function of (1) ourperceptions, (2) the steps that we choose as a result of those perceptions,and (3) the skills we have developed minus any conflicting beliefs,memories, and associations, making each moment that we interact withthe environment a perfect indication of what we know and how well wecan act on what we know.
When we refuse to acknowledge or accept the perfection of eachmoment in our lives, we deny ourselves access to the information that weneed to expand ourselves. Any skill that we need to learn to expressourselves more effectively has a true starting point. To find that true startingpoint requires our acceptance of each outcome as a reflection of the sumtotal of who we are so that we can first identify what skill needs to he learnedand how we might go about the task of learning it. Without this true startingpoint, we will operate from a base of illusion.
Illusions result from beliefs that we know more than we do and can domore than we can. We erroneously assume the environment shares ourperception of it or of ourselves and then we actively block any information tothe contrary. Illusions are the difference between accepting each moment asa perfect indication of who we are so that we can identify what we need tolearn to move forward and believing we are already perfect the way we are,in which case we need learn nothing. Certainly if any of us were in a perfectstate of knowledge and abilities, then we would never need to complain
128about anything or make excuses, rationalizations, or justifications for whythings didn't turn out as we planned.
Every "should have," "could have," "would have," or "if only" is anindication of the degree of illusion in which we are indulging ourselves. Ifwe could have, we would have, meaning that at each moment we are doingthe best we can when taking into account all the components—bothconscious and subconscious—that affect what we perceive and do.Acknowledging and accepting this perfection will always give us our truestarting point to indicate what we need to learn so that we can perceive theconditions differently or what resources we need to develop to responddifferently.
If our hypothetical trader wants to develop into an effective andconsistently successful trader, he will need to engage in some self-improvement. He will need to understand that the market is always right andthat he can profit from that tightness if he doesn't impose a rigid mental structureon its behavior. He needs to release himself from his fear of being wrong so thathe can observe the market's behavior from an objective perspective. Otherwise,his fear of being wrong will have the effect of making him wrong. He will alsoneed to establish some definite trading rules to guide his own