A couple of years ago, Tony Robbins published a book called The Holy Grail of Investing. The title captured something investors have been searching for forever: the investment, strategy, or secret that finally makes investing easier.

Something that produces attractive returns without painful losses. Something that tells us when to get in and when to get out. Something that removes uncertainty from the equation.

That would certainly qualify as a holy grail.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t exist.

But I think there is something close to a holy grail in investing. It just isn’t an investment.

It is learning how to think and behave in a way that prevents the market from turning our own emotions against us.

Start With Better Expectations

Many investment mistakes begin long before an investor actually makes a bad decision.

They begin with a bad expectation.

We expect markets to make sense. We expect experts to know what comes next. We expect our advisor to recognize trouble before it arrives. We expect a good investment strategy to protect us from significant declines.

Then reality inevitably violates those expectations.

Markets become volatile. Experts disagree. A portfolio falls. The future becomes unusually uncertain.

And suddenly it seems as though something has gone wrong. But nothing has necessarily gone wrong.

Uncertainty, instability, frightening headlines, unexpected events, and occasionally severe declines aren’t defects in the stock market. They are inherent characteristics of it.

An investor who expects these things is much better prepared for them than an investor who believes successful investing should somehow avoid them.

That’s why realistic expectations may be one of the most underappreciated advantages an investor can have.

Your Decisions Matter More Than Your Predictions

Investors spend enormous amounts of time trying to figure out what the market will do next.

I think there is a better question:

What will I do next when the market does something I don’t like?

Because over an investing lifetime, you will experience plenty of uncomfortable markets.

There will be recessions, bear markets, political uncertainty, and geopolitical crises (as we have now).

There will also be periods when stocks appear ridiculously expensive, and times when everyone seems convinced things are about to get worse.

Your long-term experience won’t be determined solely by what happens during those periods. It will also be determined by the decisions you make because of them.

Can you remain patient when patience feels irresponsible?

Can you remain disciplined when abandoning your strategy feels prudent?

Can you distinguish between something that is frightening and something that actually requires action?

Those abilities are far more valuable than another market forecast.

Learn the Skill of Strategic Ignorance

One of my favorite concepts in investing is strategic ignorance.

Strategic ignorance isn’t a lack of knowledge. It is the deliberate decision not to consume information that is unlikely to improve your decisions.

That’s very different.

Investors today have access to more financial information than any generation in history. Yet more information doesn’t necessarily produce better decisions.

Sometimes it simply gives us more things to worry about.

  • Daily market movements.
  • Economic forecasts.
  • Predictions from market strategists.
  • Financial television.
  • Political commentary.
  • Constant updates on what our portfolio is worth.

Much of this information is interesting. Very little of it changes what a disciplined long-term investor should actually do.

The challenge isn’t gaining access to information anymore.

It’s deciding what deserves our attention.

Control What You Can Control

We can’t control what the stock market does tomorrow.

We can’t control interest rates, inflation, elections, recessions, geopolitical events, or how other investors respond to them.

But investors aren’t powerless.

  • We can control how much we save.
  • We can control how diversified we are.
  • We can control the amount of risk we take.
  • We can control our costs and taxes.
  • We can control how frequently we look at our portfolios.

And, perhaps most importantly, we can control whether today’s emotions are allowed to dictate decisions affecting money we may not need for decades.

That’s where I believe the real Holy Grail of investing is found.

Not in discovering the perfect investment.

Not in predicting the next market move.

Not in finding someone who promises to eliminate uncertainty.

It’s developing realistic expectations, practicing strategic ignorance, and having the patience and discipline to stick with a sound strategy when the market inevitably gives you reasons not to.

The investment industry will always have another Holy Grail to sell.

The more valuable one may already be entirely within our control.

Related: Stop Watching the Scoreboard: Nick Saban’s Investing Lesson for Long-Term Success.