Living Your Ideals

 

Therapy is the application of psychology to understanding and overcoming one's personal problems.  The application of psychology to the achievement of our ideals is the essence of positive psychology.  What I refer to as positive trading psychology is the application of psychology to the achievement of our trading ideals.

But how do we become the people we wish to be?

The key idea is that we achieve our ideals by living our ideals each day.  When we do and do and do, we internalize our actions.  We don't change ourselves and do great things.  We do great things daily and evolve.

Here is a powerful framework for self-change:

Identify one thing that you would like to do each day that represents the person (or trader or spouse or professional) that you would like to become.  The one new thing you do should be something very doable, but also something very different from what you've been doing.  Perhaps I would like to get in better shape and have more energy.  So every day, I will run on the treadmill and keep track of my aerobic capacity.  I'll do that for a month and write down my progress each day.

When we do something the same way each day for a month, we turn an effortful behavior into a habit pattern.  By the end of the month of daily work on the treadmill and keeping a journal of progress, the aerobic workouts become part of my daily routine.  I then add a new desired behavior as my daily activity for the next month; perhaps making a conscious effort to spend quality time with someone I love.  Every day, I do something loving and, over time, I become a more loving person.  

By the end of a year of such monthly work, we have not only changed in many respects, but we gain confidence in our ability to change.  The cumulative impact of living our ideals brings us closer and closer to the happiness and fulfillment we're capable of.  

That is true therapy for the mentally well:  Each month, find a way to bring our real selves closer to our ideal selves and make that a daily routine.  Gradually we shape who we wish to be:  in trading, in relationships, in life.

Providing a home for abandoned, neglected, and unwanted cats has been a way I have worked on my own capacity to give for many years.  Part of my positive self therapy is creating a website for this work and reinforcing those ideals.  

Each day, every day, in the same ways:  be a little bit of the person you wish to be.  

Character grows from the ground up when we plant the seeds and water each day.

.