|  JUN 1991

Flowing With The Markets by Van K. Tharp, Ph.D.

Flowing With The Markets by Van K. Tharp, Ph.D. Imagine yourself flowing down a river, only you don't know that you are. You do, however, notice that when you move in one direction, with the flow of the river, you move rapidly. When you move in another direction, against the river, you move slowly or not at all. In fact, when you go in that direction, you seem to put out a lot more effort just to stay in place. Your life becomes a struggle. It just seems to push you in another direction. Feeling miserable, you fight against it. But it doesn't help. You still seem to move only in one direction — with the flow of the river. Most people prefer to struggle against the river. They try everything they can think of to go upstream. All solutions like this — going against the flow — have the same result: frustration. If you were in the river, what could you do to make your life easier? One solution would be to get out of the river. But that would be giving up. There is only one easy solution — to acknowledge or accept that the problem has nothing to do with the river. The river just is. And it moves downstream, and nothing you do can change that. When you realize that the problem stems from you, then the solution becomes obvious — just relax and flow with the river.

by Van K. Tharp, Ph.D.