U.S. home improvement supply company Lowe's (www.lowes.com) is running a television ad campaign right now with the slogan of "Never Stop Improving." The ads are appropriately featured during the March Madness basketball tournament, the annual NCAA basketball playoff system which started a few days ago in the U.S. for the top college teams. Stories of individual player's and team work ethics are extremely inspiring during this tournament. These stories focus on the extraordinary daily efforts that bring teams to the spotlight of the march toward the title of college basketball champs.
Along the lines of the 7 Day plan described in my book, Steven Covey suggests that someone starting on a self-improvement plan only commit to 30 minutes per day to begin with--20 minutes for physical activity and the balance of 10 minutes for reading, spiritual and personal development activities. Once the benefits of only a 30 minute commitment become very clear, moving from 30 minutes per day to a much greater investment of time in yourself becomes easy.
The goal of personal development is simple--to create the power of self-efficacy, the ability to create your future instead of letting it be created for you. Goals that are bigger than you are right now will ensure personal growth to reach those goals, often faster than you plan to reach them. Any meaningful and lasting change must start first on the inside in your imagination before those changes can manifest themselves in your outside world.
Tony Robbins calls it "CANAI"--constant and never-ending improvement. As an employee, spouse, parent, friend and trader, this should be the goal for every day. The minor changes and improvements made each day and every week add up to permanent, lasting steps toward the written goals and aspirations that we've set for ourselves.
Along that line, here's a step I'm taking beginning this week to continue to improve on my skills as a trader. I've sat down and written out an outline of the trades I took or planned to take last week. I've noted what went well, what I could have done better and then written down the areas of trading that I want to work on in the coming week. I've printed screenshots of the trades from last week with notes on them and placed all of these charts and my trading goals for the week in a plastic notebook insert--easy to carry with me throughout the week and review while planning, executing and managing trades. At the end of the week, I expect these incremental changes to significantly contribute toward taking me closer to the big goals I've set for myself as trader.
This process carries over to family, work and all other areas of life as well. Work to balance all areas of your life and continue to grow in every important value you hold. Have a great week!
