Discipline Can Be Learned

I was presented with the following question:

"When you were teaching us at our forex office in Florida, you stressed discipline. Our head trader stresses discipline. What I want to know is if discipline can be acquired or is it just something you are born with? I'm having trouble finding it in myself."

Personally, I believe discipline can be learned, although at times it is very painful. When I began trading, I was an undisciplined person. But trading and the markets forced me to become disciplined. Was the discipline already there and just needed to be extracted? Or did I actually learn it? I can't really be sure. I was a delinquent as a boy. I was in rebellion against all authority. I hated teachers and I hated school. I was really struggling with life as a young man.

One of the largest private trading firms, 1,500 S&P day traders, kept their offices near yeshivas. A yeshiva is a rabbinical school, which produces rabbis of the Jewish religion. The students coming out of the yeshiva were highly disciplined and made excellent traders. Was the discipline innate in those yeshiva students? Or did they learn it under the strict supervision of the rabbis who controlled their lives? I think they learned it.

I've mentioned previously that it can help to keep a journal if you want to learn discipline. The journal I kept was very basic and included what trades I made during the day and my reasons for getting into the trade. It is what I did with the journal that helped me to be disciplined. Anyone can make entries into a journal. I let the contents of my journal keep me in line. It became my supervisor. I took to heart what I wrote there. I no longer keep that kind of journal because it has served its purpose in making discipline into a habit in the way I trade.

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