I’ll save you the trouble—don’t try to pursue perfection! Perfection doesn’t exist in either life or the stock market. There was a time in my life when I was pretty tough on myself with my investing decisions and outcomes, and it never helped me become a better investor or a more accurate forecaster. All it did was put additional pressure where there was pressure enough in making my investment determinations.
It’s the same for marriage, dating, close friendships, and business partnerships. Mistakes will be made despite the most carefully laid plans. When they occur you’ll need to be able to shift to a more flexible mode in order to deal with them and not beat yourself over the head, so to speak. Doing so will only make you less effective in dealing with the issue at hand. Can any relationship realistically stand a chance at long-term success if one or both partners has expectations of perfection or close to it? Can having such a rigid standard endure over time? It has to drain your energy and possibly affect your health. Sometimes forgiving one’s faults, if the parties agree, allows for a far longer-lasting and happier relationship.
Many of the misguided investment axioms discussed in this book cannot be successfully addressed by being a perfectionist. Forget about it. Approaching the market in this fashion is like already having two strikes against you before you reach the plate—that is, if you even get up to bat in the first place.
Putting more pressure on yourself in any circumstance, whether it’s in life, investing, business, or romance, can cause you to make bad decisions under the increased stress and anxiety of the moment. Often, you’ll act and not react. You’ll be so immersed in the situation that it will control you. It elevates the potential for even more errors in judgment.
Being set in your ways and overly precise are negatives when it comes to competing in the stock market arena. To me and my “market technician” crowd, investing is an art. There’s room for flexibility. Even bridges are constructed with room for some sway, and airplane wings are designed to have some leeway for movement during flight. A twenty-four-hour news cycle, dizzying market volatility, and millions of investors with differing investment and psychological profiles investing billions of dollars across a broad spectrum of issues demands that you be flexible in your investment approach. The market will teach you that lesson eventually if you don’t already know it.
Believe me, I know about pressure. It can indeed be a helpful and motivating force in achieving your goals. However, there’s a limit beyond which you shouldn’t go—one that transforms it into a negative influence with your investments, your family, and your friends.
(To be continued...)
This excerpt is taken from “Relationship Investing: Stock Market Therapy for Your Money” by Jeffrey S. Weiss. To read other articles of this book, click here. To buy this book, click here.
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