Monday, January 30, 2017

How to Make the Changes That Will Change Your Trading

I strongly encourage you to check out this month's Forbes article and its links, which show how much change we're capable of and how we can make those changes.

The change process is remarkably similar, regardless of the specific approaches being used.  We first identify the recurring patterns in our lives that account for our success; then we engage in emotionally impactful experiences that change the old patterns and introduce new, positive ones; then we find repeated and creative ways to build those new patterns until they fully become a part of us.

The research summarized in the article strongly suggests that structuring this process in a helping relationship accelerates change and increases the probability of sustaining changes.  That helping relationship can be a coaching one, as in sports.  It can be a counseling relationship in a school setting, or it can be a therapeutic relationship for life and relationship changes.  It can be a mentoring relationship at work.

Think of a personal trainer in a gym.  They will correct the exercises you are doing and introduce new ones.  They will help you sustain effort even when you lose momentum.  Over the course of your gym work you don't just improve your exercising.  You become a stronger person, someone more fit, someone who feels better about themselves.

This is the big takeaway:  In changing our patterns, we open the door to more profound changes.  You don't necessarily need a dedicated trading coach, but you also don't have to go it on your own.  The right counselor, therapist, or mentor acts as a catalyst for change.  As the research linked below suggests, having someone as a change agent enables us to make many years' worth of changes in a matter of months.

We make the changes that will change our trading by finding the people who see the best in us and help us realize that potential.

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