We’d like to say a big thank you to all of you who have supported us with your purchases. Yesterday was our last day of sales. Our store is now closed.
Also, a big thank you goes to all of you who are reading this newsletter.
We have three more weeks to continue this publication. In these next three issues, we will have a two-part feature in which you’ll hear from VTI team members, partners, instructors and Super Trader coaches as we share our Gifts from Van with you. Our final message on November 15th will have an article from RJ Hixson and a final Gifts from Van message from Kala Tharp.
We start today with Part One, of Gifts from Van.
Eliminating Emotionally Charged Beliefs
Understanding that emotionally-charged beliefs can only be changed by taking off the charge first.
When going through the early part of the Super Trader Program, I had a huge “Aha!” moment when Van shared that some beliefs have an emotional charge attached to them. My whole life up until that day was mainly run by non-useful beliefs heavily charged with fear, so I understood what he meant. My fear-related beliefs seemed particularly persistent and had created life circumstances over and over again. Those circumstances then recharged the fear and kept the beliefs strong. I finally knew why, for many years, I had been unable to change some beliefs plus the thoughts, emotions and resulting actions.
Van explained that a charged belief can only be changed once the emotional charge is taken off first and a big light bulb went off. This discovery put me on my journey of chopping off charged emotions from non-useful beliefs. In less than 6 months, many of those beliefs had disappeared or had greatly diminished power. The impact of that change on my life was quite amazing.
Thank you, Van, for the gift of understanding that emotionally-charged beliefs can only be changed by taking off the charge first!
Gabriel Grammatidis
Super Trader Graduate
Forex and Futures Systems Developer and Instructor
INTUFX
True Identity
I hope people will always remember Van for the gift of imparting this teaching: The Importance of Consciousness. This teaching does not just apply in trading, but in every aspect of our lives. If we ask, “Who would I need to BE to become a consistently profitable trader?” the answer is, “I would need to operate from, and as, my SELF—the Consciousness that I already AM.” The uncovering of our True Identity, who WE ARE, who we have always been, and who we will always BE is SELF-Realization. Van was boldly and relentlessly dedicated to that instruction.
The biggest gift that Van gave me was the opportunity to play that game with him for almost twenty years. For that, Van, I AM forever grateful.
Libby Adams
Peak Performance 202 Instructor
Super Trader Program 28 Day Transformational Coach
Academy of Self Knowledge
Golden Rule of Relationships
I’ll remember Van Tharp and his legacy in so many ways.
Among the gifts Van provided was his gentle, generous, and caring spirit. His bigger gift to me was no doubt, an extension of this kind nature. Van’s biggest gift was the people he kept around him who also had deep, meaningful, and caring spirits. At the very first Van Tharp event I attended in the mid-1990’s, two people were working with Van who are still with the Van Tharp Institute today.
The first person is Van’s wonderful and talented wife Kala. At various times she ran different aspects of the company including the whole dang thing at least at one time. Today, she is still as kind and generous and delightful as ever and somehow, she found the fountain of youth. Kala was Van’s rock in every way throughout his adult life, especially during his final chapters with us.
You may know the other person from some of the online workshops but otherwise, she has run things behind the scenes for a long time. Cathy Hasty is our own modern-day Wizard of Oz. She has calmly and adeptly operated Van’s company at the highest levels of excellence and integrity for many decades. She’s been the glue that holds everything and everyone together at VTI. That phrase “for decades” is one that I hold with the utmost respect.
So, Van’s gifts – while many – boil down for me to one Golden Rule of relationships: Surround yourself with good people and treat them how you would like to be treated. And yes, that’s also a lesson taught by my favorite teacher.
As I’ve said at the end of many seminars – It’s never goodbye, but rather, until we meet again.
God bless you and great trading.
D. R. Barton, Jr.
Contributing Writer for VTI’s Tharp’s Thoughts,
Co Author Safe Strategies for Financial Freedom & Financial Freedom Through Electronic Day Trading
Partner, 7 Principles of Successful Investing
Happiness: For No Reason at All
Eleven or twelve years back, Van listened to the audio book Happiness Now by Robert Holden, and it prompted all sorts of new ideas and questions for him. In the following months, he read books, research papers, and even spoke with some experts.
Van knew that happiness had been ignored largely in academia which further motivated him to dive quite deep into the area. He shared many of his discoveries with us at our staff meetings at the time. The area was so rich in potential benefits for traders that he crafted the Peak 203 Workshop which we always referred to as his “Happiness Workshop”.
One of that workshop’s core concepts comes back to me almost daily: We don’t need to wait for a good reason – or even any reason at all – to be happy. Many (most?) people tend to postpone their happiness until . . . they get a particular possession . . . they achieve some milestone . . . or they reach a certain stage in their lives. In the interim, there’s probably a lot of striving, waiting, stress, even perhaps some really good suffering – all in the name of pursuing some happy ending.
The greater truth is that you don’t need a possession, achievement, or life stage to be happy. We can be happy for no reason, now. And why not? If you have ever noticed feeling down for no apparent reason, then why couldn’t you feel great for no apparent reason as well? What a relief it was for me to know I don’t need “stuff”. I also don’t need to earn happiness – though I still can. I also don’t need to deserve it – I am already worthy of being happy. I need do nothing more right now than to notice my thoughts and feelings – then to make a choice (and sometimes take an action).
Thank you, Van!
RJ Hixson
Lead Instructor,
Curriculum and Super Trader Advisor
The Van Tharp Institute
Count Your Blessings
Dr. Tharp often used to say, “Count your Blessings” when referring to an individual’s journey towards achieving meaningful goals in life.
Among all the things I have learnt during my 17 years of association with Dr. Tharp, this statement had a profound impact on me. Dr. Tharp helped me recognize that a sense of fulfillment in life does not have a single metric. We measure our successes and failures through our own biases and as a result, we tend to focus more on what we lack rather than seeing the positive side of what we have achieved.
Whenever I recollect Dr. Tharp’s words, I remind myself that human beings live in a complex, interdependent world that is so delicately fine-tuned. Everything that brings happiness and contentment in our day-to-day lives comes from sources over which we have no direct influence. Recognizing this seemingly simple truth is a humbling experience and it greatly enhances the quality of life I have experienced during my brief existence. These are my countless blessings.
With gratitude,
Revathi Ramaswami
Finance Manager
The Van Tharp Institute
Keep the Channel Open
“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique.
And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open….” —Martha Graham
In January 2009, Dr. Van Tharp and I enjoyed the first of many thoughtful conversations. We started discussing role profiles for his evolving leadership team… proceeded to a deep coaching dialogue … and finished with him asking why I wouldn’t ask my Divine to manifest the weather. This was the start of a wonderful client friendship and for the last fourteen years, I have had the pleasure of serving Van and VTI as a consultant and strategic advisor.
Van and I shared a deep passion for transformational growth and for helping others. Within this context, we explored many meaningful areas for VTI and its clients. In our journey, Van meditated, danced, blessed others, belly laughed with joy, and sometimes cried. He was a beautiful soul, unafraid of being authentic and vulnerable to the world. These were integral parts of his creative leadership.
After twenty years of consulting with leaders in multiple industries, I can say, unequivocally, that Van was the most deeply generative and creative leader I have known. His level of creativity and his impact were exceptional. Some might be tempted to credit Van’s success to his intellectual genius. While there may be some truth to that, my work with other intellectually gifted leaders confirms that this was not the ‘difference that made a difference’. Rather, the true difference originated with Van’s singular and powerful approach to his own transformation.
For Van, transformation was a continual spiritual journey inward to heightened consciousness, awakening, and self-realization. He often referred to this process as “Self-work” and consistently practiced it without ever knowing what he might find. He had faith, however, that Self-work would align him with his Inner Guidance. Over time, Van developed a continuous and profound relationship with his Inner Guidance. His unwavering trust in his Inner Guidance sustained an open channel for a unique creative flow that led to an exceptional life and positive impacts on the lives of others.
Van had a rare understanding for how to ‘keep the channel open’ and he did so with extraordinary awareness, responsibility, and self-work. Van would remind us that these abilities are readily available to everyone – so long as you adopt this belief!
I am deeply grateful for having known Van. He remains my role model for ‘keeping the channel open’.
Our goal is to raise the consciousness of the planet one person (trader) at a time. —Van Tharp
Kimm Hershberger
Principal, Management Consultant
Business Innovations
The Gift of the Clients
In the Spring of 1996, I walked into an interview. It was my third interview and this time it was with the owner of the company. He didn’t say much. He asked me to point in the direction of my future, then to point to my past. He laid out four quarters in a single row on his desk in front of me and asked me to tell him about the quarters. I was intrigued so I rolled with it, finding lots to say about the quarters. That was about it. The interview was over.
They offered me the position and I accepted even though I was a little skeptical about the clientele – “traders and investors.” Humm, I thought, they are probably going to be a group of demanding and entitled customers – but I was so excited about the position. I already had 10 years of experience in marketing roles and was ready to get started. Besides, small companies were just my cup of tea… I love wearing all the different hats needed in a small team.
Then I started interacting directly with the clients. Wow! Twenty-seven years later I can still say this: The people who are drawn to Van Tharp’s teaching are the nicest people in the world. You are a humble, generous, intelligent, and kind group of people — through your emails, over the phone, and in person. This holds true for every level of our clients, from free newsletter subscribers all the way to the Super Traders.
With every discussion, decision, and offer, I put your best interests first. Van and I shared the same fuel that kept us motivated — the feedback from students about the amazing life impacts of Van’s teachings. Where else could I have worked all these years to hear, at least weekly, feedback that Van’s work had changed someone’s whole life. I am forever grateful for this.
It has been my privilege to work with all of you good people. And that’s on top of getting the privilege to work directly with Van Tharp. Like everyone who crossed his path, I learned so much from Van. I will always admire that VTI’s mission statement was not about profit or growth but about how many lives we could help transform.
Decades later, I asked Van about that quarters exercise in my interview. He said he was observing whether I mainly pointed out differences in the group of coins or if I looked for similarities. Looking for commonalities supposedly indicated that I would collaborate better with a team. No contest there – I am a natural born collaborator!
All the best, dear friends. I can’t express to you how much I will miss publishing this newsletter and our many other collaborations. I hope I cross paths with many of you in the future!
Thank you Van for bringing such great people into our lives!
Cathy Hasty
VP Operations and Marketing
The Van Tharp Institute