Always Keep Improving!

  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!  

The Value of Repeatedly Reviewing Self Development Resources

     In my 7 Day reports in the Coach's Corner each week, over time you may have seen that I continue to read some of the same books and listen to the same audio programs. Books such as Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill and Mark Douglas' Trading in the Zone are classics--I always learn something new every time I read them. The same holds true with Jim Rohn's Art of Exceptional Living and Brian Tracy's Psychology of Achievement audio programs--every listening reinforces their excellent teaching and opens the door for new learning as I'm traveling down the road.

    This really came to light for me this week as I finished another review of Psychology of Achievement. At one point, Brian Tracy made the statement that, when we set precise goals, our subconscious then starts to deliver "obstacles or challenges" (often viewed as failures at the time). The subconscious sends these to us because we have certain lessons we have to learn before we can move closer to our goals. It reportedly took Thomas Edison over 10,000 tries to create the incandescent lightbulb--when asked about these many "failures", Edison replied that he had not failed. Rather; he had discovered 10,000 ways not to invent the lightbulb. (Recall the magic of the 10,000 figure discussed in Driving Your Way).

    I thought about Brian Tracy's statement and how it applied to my early Fx trading days with trades dominated by 5 minute charts and not the higher timeframes; charts full of indicators and not just market flow from price action and days when my focus was on over learning and over analyzing the markets and not focusing on my mental training and mental approach to trading. These were but a few of the many obstacles delivered to me that served as critically important lessons in my maturity as a trader. Losses were far more abundant than profits, but they were part of the journey toward improving my trading results over time.

  Through journaling trades, practicing trading through visualization and by taking notes on trading thoughts and observations in a separate journal, I continue to work on refining my trading every day. Learn from every one of your trades and be a stronger, wiser and better trader this week than you were last week.

  Have a great trading week!

 Learn the correct way to use candlesticks in your trading--free webinar with Steve Nison on January 31, 2012: http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?Clk=4596971 (As with any affiliate program associated with Driving Your Way, a portion of any affiliate commissions will benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital: www.stjude.org).

New Trading Resources

  For the last few weeks, I've been reading Mind Power: Thought Techniques for High Powered Trading by Ruth B. Roosevelt (available on Amazon). This is an excellent trading psychology book that incorporates many important concepts such as the use of trading affirmations, trader self-talk, the importance of goals and using NLP techniques to fast track trading success. This book is a collection of on line articles by the author and each article is presented in a way that a trader can focus on just one or two lessons at a time to improve their trading. There's homework at the end of each short article that will require the trader to really focus on and think about implementing a new strategy in the future to improve trading results.

  Steve Nison is hosting a webinar on January 31, 2012 to discuss new ways to use candlesticks to improve trading results--for information: http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?Clk=4596971

10 Steps to Achieving Goals

  Notes from Bill Bartmann's webinar on goal setting:

     "Never be Awed by Success; Never Be Intimidated by Failure."
                         Bill Bartmann (www.billbartmann.com):

1.   Set crazy/big goals, not just big goals.
2.   Don't call them goals--they're promises. Promises are not made lightly. 
3.   Clearly identify the promise--what are the details?
4.   Identify your personal motivator--What's the why for the promise?
5.   Create a promise plan: what is the objective, by what date, where, why (see#4), whose help will you need and how--what steps are necessary to reach your promise?
6.   Review your promises and your plans 20 minutes each day.
7.   Tell yourself you will succeed--the size of your success is determined by the size of your belief.
8.   Tell others about your promises--success requires commitment.
9.   Envision the results--see the conclusion--Bill calls this "reverse worry."
10. Start!! You'll never know every step of the journey--take it 100 yards at a time and get going!

         
       

Overcoming Adversity

       "Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who you are."
                       Paul Martinelli

         In 1982, I was beginning my first year of law school in St. Louis. It was an exciting year to live in St. Louis as the baseball Cardinals won the World Series that year--there was an incredible feeling of electricity in the air during the Fall of 1982. I enjoyed reliving that feeling the last few weeks as the Cardinals won the World Series again last Friday in dramatic fashion. One strike away from elimination in Game 6, the Cards stormed back to win Games 6 and 7 and the Series.

         The Series MVP, David Freese, is a shining example of the benefits of taking on adversity head on and succeeding despite all odds. David grew up in the St. Louis area and played baseball in high school, but he quit playing when high school was over. He eventually made his way back into baseball, ultimately playing for his boyhood team. Last season though, after winning the starting third base position, an ankle injury limited his playing time to only 70 games. This season, a hand injury only allowed him to play 92 games. Yet when it was time to dig deep and play in the playoffs and World Series this month, his true character shined through. His "problems" as some call them or "challenges" as I suspect David calls them did not matter. David set 2 Series' records in the drive for the title of World Champions.

          There are 2 months left in 2011 after today. What challenges will you overcome on the way to your best year ever? Start building momentum today for an even better 2012.

Thoughts and Actions

           "What you are is what you have been, and what you will be is what you do." Paul Martinelli (www.paulmartinelli.net).

    Such a short sentence, but full of incredible wisdom.  Our past actions, thoughts and feelings have brought us to our reality right now.  In order to create a new reality, we must engage in entirely new thoughts mixed with intense, passionate and unwavering feelings to bring that new reality into existence. What steps are you taking to advance toward your goals? Are you practicing visualizing your future on a daily basis--do you concentrate on that future with laser beam focus and unquestioning faith that you will be, do and have everything you desire?

   Take the first big step toward your new life today and spend quiet time concentrating on your future--today is the first day of the new tomorrow you desire.

   For ideas on visualization and the incredible power of the mind to create anything we aspire to be, do and have, the book The New Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz along with the movie/book/audio book The Secret will provide a lifetime of learning.

Why Goals are Critical to Your Success

      "Set a goal to achieve something that is so big, so exhilarating, that it excites you and scares you at the same time.  It must be a goal that is so appealing, so much in line with your spiritual core, that you can't get it out of your mind.  If you do not get chills when you set a goal, you're not setting big enough goals."
    Bob Proctor

  This has been a week where several of the personal development resources which I review each day have all focused on the process of setting goals and, more importantly, why goals are necessary for all of us.  Several Napoleon Hill Daily Thoughts have emphasized that having clearly-defined, written goals help us prioritize our activities each day, week, month and year. By concentrating your efforts on activities necessary to reach the key goals in your life, those goals become reality much sooner.  Successful people don't think short-term. Rather, they approach their life as a long-term work in progress--they review their short, medium and long-term goals on a regular basis. Once goals are accomplished and as they grow as a person, successful people set new, more ambitious goals for the next phase of their life.

  As I finished my review of Jim Rohn's classic audio program "The Art of Exceptional Living" this week, I ran across the philosophy that Jim's mentor taught him so many years ago and which Jim has taught millions of people around the world: Set goals not to receive the material gain associated with the goal, but for what you will become in order to achieve that goal. For example, starting a physical fitness program provides not only better health, but you'll acquire a new stronger level of discipline which carries over to all areas of your life. Achieving a new level of financial success will come through improving your skills in your job or profession, not solely from working harder or longer hours each week.  Improving skills comes from reading, learning and studying the critical factors of your job or profession and applying those refined skills every day.

  Set a goal this week to spend time to review and, if necessary, revise your written goals and set a course for an even stronger and more successful second half of 2011.

 This week I also came across a new resource to use in training for the psychology of trading. By way of updating the Bibliography in my recently released book Driving Your Way To Success (www.forexmentor.com/driving/), I strongly recommend that you review and use the new app. available from Subconscious Training Corporation called "Hypnosis on the Run." I've come to know Norman and Tisha Hallett from their excellent trading psychology course at www.thedisciplinedtrader.com.  This very intense 6 week training program includes the use of affirmations and weekly subconscious trainings which focus on the important traits of successful traders.  I've used these affirmations/subconscious trainings for several years--they are extremely effective.  The new app. also includes training for weight loss and several sports. On trading, the app. keys in on 10 areas specific to trading such as Maintaining Focus, Handling Fears and Emotions, Coping With Losses and Controlling Over-Confidence. Each training requires only 8 minutes; repeated use builds new habits of success in trading.

  Have a great week and spend some time with your goals--design your future, don't just let it happen!