Heart Stone

"Just how important is this stone?", the kid asked while examining a small rock on his hand.

"That depends on how you look at it.", the old geezer explained.

"It is, after all, just a pebble."

The old man tapped his walking stick on the ground and hit a pebble away.

"Just a pebble?", the kid asked, "With no powers?!?", now confused, threw the rock as far as he can to join the rest of the pebbles on the ground.

The old man let out a big sigh, looked up to the sunny sky, and squinted his eyes.

"It's not the stone itself that has value.", the old man said.

He then look down on the pebbles on the ground.

"It's about how you found it."

He turned his face to the boy and finally said,

"The significance is in the process."

"Hanggang sa anime sinusundan tayo ng 'the Process' braaaahd."

So yeah anime... this anime was Boruto - Naruto, Next Generations.

The particular scene above was when Boruto and Ohnoki was trapped in one of Land of Earth's magical training grounds.

Why magical?

It's because once you get in, you won't be able to find your way out, unless (1) you find your heart stone and it will show you the way out or (2) someone else gets in and finds his own heart stone so then you can tag along on his way out.

Option 1 seems easy, right? But let's skip it for now.

Let's go to option 2. It may seem possible. They just need to wait for someone else to get in the 'training ground', find his heart stone, and tag along their way out.

But the problem was, it was a time of peace in the Naruto-verse and no one likes to do ninja-training anymore to hone their skills. So the possibility of someone else getting in was close to none.

So back to option 1 then.

Boruto just have to find his heart stone. Easy.

But there's one condition in finding the heart stone.

For someone to find his heart stone, one must accept who they are and must have the genuine will to train and hone their skills.

Boruto picked up a random rock and chose it as his heart stone.

"It's not that simple." Said Ohnoki the old man.

Boruto looked confused.

"Then is there an easy-to-follow strategy", he asked, tossing the rock he just chose.

The old man looked down at the ground where the sea of pebbles are.

"The heart stone's glow is only visible to self-reliant people... who truly confront who they are." Ohnoki explained.

"A person who is unwilling to train will never find it."

Just like how finding the path to success only presents itself to people who owns their choices and take action to ensure that they achieve their goals.

People who have tried to understand their own personality. Their weaknesses, strengths, beliefs, and emotions.

People who are unwilling to go through the process will never find it.

***

"It's not the stone itself that has value."

"It's about how you found it."

"The significance is in the process."

***

Sounds familiar?

It should be.

The very same concept has always been thrown to us when it comes to trading.

They say, 'Don't just trust the process. Fall in love with it.'

When you start on your trading journey, just like a sea of pebbles, there will be thousands of trading strategies out there that you'll encounter. But you have to find your  one system first. Your niche.

But it's not the system or niche itself that has the value.

It's about how you came up with it.

It's about how you laid out your plans.

It's about how you backtested it.

It's about how you found flaws in it and how you fixed them after.

It's about how you struggled with your emotions and how you controlled them after.

It's about how you break your bad habits and developed better ones.

It's about how you faced your demons and how you tamed them.

It's about how you found imperfections on your system and refined it along the way.

It's about how you progressed as trader and how it changed you as a person in general.

The significance of it all is in the process of you becoming this trader that you want to be.

Success is never an end goal. It's in the process of achieving the end goal.

So let's go train and hone our skills. To find our Heart Stones. And when we do, may our stones illuminate the way to achieving our goals.

PS:

If you're wondering if Boruto and Ohnoki managed to find a way out -

Yes, they got out.

Another shinobi kid went in the magical training ground with a pure intention of training himself to be a great shinobi worthy of being the next Tsuchikage (the Village Leader). He managed to accept and overcome his habit of making excuses and defeated a giant wolf with Boruto's help. The ordinary pebble that he was holding all that time then glowed and showed them the way out.

PPS:

Credits to Zeefreaks' blog for the cover image - taken from this post.