There is No Better Time than Thanksgiving Week to Think About Gratitude

Thanksgiving has been a confusing holiday for me for many years because there is the Canadian Thanksgiving in October and then there is Thanksgiving in November for the United States. For an Asian who first moved to Canada some 30 years ago as a kid, it was a puzzle. It took me a long time to understand the meaning of Thanksgiving holidays. Surprisingly, it is not something new to me culturally – I know Thanksgiving is the day for the expression of gratitude. What I did not understand is the reason why such a day is needed.

Gratitude in the Big Cities

I learned over the years living in big cities like Toronto and New York that rarely do we see people showing gratitude in anything. I say rarely because there are people who do and it is always a pleasant surprise to meet these people. From my observations, these people are more cheerful than the others. Maybe it is just my biased opinion.

So could it be the fact that there is a Thanksgiving holiday, people have to save up all their gratitude to be used on that day only?

Extending gratitude to others in the big cities lands me into many awkward moments. Sometimes a sincere thank you can make the day for the waitress who has a bad day. Yet, there are other situations that the gratitude is not accepted. We cannot control how the others response to our actions. Hence extending gratitude may make us feel vulnerable at times.

Being Grateful Has Practical Benefits

Being grateful is an attitude towards life. Once you choose to be grateful it becomes much easier to extend your gratitude towards the others because it comes from within. Fake gratitude only adds to one’s miseries, not helping it.

Nowadays, science has finally learned what gratitude can do and it is amazing.

By just practising thankful thoughts towards the people you know several minutes a day, anxiety and other stress related issues are significantly reduced.

In addition to thankful thoughts, if you show your gratitude to the people you love regularly, the relationships become stronger and can last much longer.

I would like to add that being grateful is a very powerful coping mechanism against great difficulties and depressive emotions. When you can see the world in a more positive way, you will be more willing to accept the challenges you are facing.

From Being Grateful to Being Humble

Many young people who never face adversities can be quite arrogant and that in turn making them not suitable as traders. One solution to this issue is simply making them practice gratitude everyday. Once gratitude grows on them, their arrogance is reduced. This gives them a chance to progress into a more humble attitude towards trading.

This transition is made possible because being grateful makes us accepting the fact that other people’s actions have effects on us no matter good or bad. Over time, this will make us understand our well being actually depends heavily on what happens around us for which we have no control. Knowing how little we have control over our own lives helps us stay humble.

And we all know there is no certainty with trading. Thus, being humble is important for long term success in trading as we are expected to deal with setbacks and things that we may not understand at all. Only by accepting the fact that we do not know everything that we can keep an open mind to deal with uncertainties.

Long Weekend and Holiday Break

I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all my readers at daytradingbias.com. I am very grateful for the emails I received over the years telling me my writings have positive impacts on so many traders around the world. Your gratitude keeps me going.

I would like to tell all my premium members that I am very thankful for their support. Without you, I would not be able to develop the next generation trading technologies that are tailor-made for traders like you. Your valuable inputs have helped me understand what traders really need during the trading day when decision making has to be done quickly and decisively.

I am getting back my rhythm in writing, finally. I just need a better way to organize my time so that I can complete all the things I have on hand one-by-one. There are so many projects I have started – Definitive Guide to Emini S&P Day Trading Success, Art of Chart Reading the ebook edition, next version of real-time price level tools and many more. Lots of things to get done, I am sure it will keep me busy for a long time.

This coming Thanksgiving week, I will take a week long break starting Thursday and will resume regular posting the Thursday after. There will be a delay for the regular December issue of Market Bias Observer. If special market situation arises, I will post a special update for the premium members over the Thanksgiving weekend. Depending on how hectic the travel during the Thanksgiving weekend, I probably will not be able to comment on the weekend charts.

It is first time ever I join the Thanksgiving travel madness. Wish me luck.

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