When Knowing is Not Enough TradersCALM © "Dedicated to trading with good feelings."
	I have a doctor friend, Jan, who told me a sad story about one of her patients, now dead, who had just refused to give up smoking - she was obviously upset by it. Jan said, she did not normally interfere in the lifestyle of her patients. But Joe, in his early twenties, and one of her first patients, smoked 80 or more a day; his lung cancer was advanced, and as many of his various life-threatening complaints were exacerbated by smoking, she felt it wise to again advise him to cut down, and then quit smoking, if only for the sake of his new wife and two baby children. Joe had told her, that he knew all about lung cancer - he worked for a cancer research outfit after all - and he understood the effect it had on his various problems, because they got better when he cut down to 40 a day last year, that that he had tried to give up several times and it had made him very unhappy.     She said they both knew it was killing him - but in the end it was up to him. Then, as a routine part of his treatment, he was shown the x-rays of his lungs.     At once he was personally involved, he not only had knowledge of the damage, he was aware of it - apparently he gave the hospital doctor his cigarettes then and there, and never smoked another.     Sadly he died 6 months later from lung cancer.     His awareness came too late for him, for his wife and children. Many of us subscribe, unwittingly perhaps, to the idea:       • if I know what the cause is,       • if I can give it a name,       • if I have knowledge about the problem, then I can solve it. It is a common delusion.     Awareness, not knowledge helps.     Bypassing the problem helps. Knowledge usually is not sufficient for behavioural change.     That is why many traders never seem to learn, for example, the importance of discipline.     They have understanding, often deep-seated knowledge, but no change in their behaviour has taken place.     Also sometimes resisting reinforces, it does not diminish. When awareness is involved, change can be effortless. It is probably true, "most traders already know how they should be" - but knowing is not enough. To help ourselves with deep-seated problems we need to gain awareness, mere knowledge is insufficient.     When we can engage our awareness, the process of change can be effortless.     So the obvious question is how can awareness be generated?     And one set of answers is by:       • personal experience,       • suffering enough,       • insight of the already wise,       • use of laughter,       • provocation,       • ... We all often put up veils and blockages to awareness in many spheres of our lives.     Strong emotions are some of the tools we use to block awareness - and they are pretty effective at the job! But only when each person is ready to become aware in one area of his/her life is there an opportunity for a quantum jump in growth - a good traders coach will judge well when that time has arisen. Please take me back to the self-awareness archive menu.