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Thank you again for this great thread- It has been thought provoking for me. In thinking of my
previous answer I realized it may sound elitist - and that was not my intent. I want to expand this because
it is an important element.
When I read the above I thought Oh what a fun guy that must be - Ok family we are going on a trip and when we
arrive we will sit down and have a family conference and talk about goals. LOL. The reality is that is not what happens at
all. We choose to take road trips. The meat and potato's of the discussions happen on the road in some of the most boring terrain.
We will talk about the last year and what is interesting is to pick up on what everyone else thought were the highlights.
Things that I thought were huge may have had no relevance to them, and things that they thought were huge to me were not.
So it's often a time of alignment. By the time we reach our destination the board meetings are done lol. I have also had great
thoughts and ideas come to me while on the road like this so I find them really valuable. I can remember the terrain and
have a visual image of where the thought happened on our trip.
I mentioned a previous mentor earlier- Dr Bruce Nelson - His thesis was the RPC spec which is basically the foundation
of the functional internet. He told me he wrote this while hitchhiking around the world sailing. He would do this work
and find the creativity while on his midnight sailing watches. He would often mix adventure and thinking
no question was stupid and would always reframe it to make one sound brilliant.
Anyway- for me I find if I have a problem I am trying to solve I will think about it hard and usually will not come up with
an answer. Then later when perhaps the next day when I awake or after some downtime an answer or idea will come
out of the blue. Often our retreat excursions are a collective method to get on the same page.
I've just recently read this quote about 5 year plans. Looking back, it seems that the big stuff did indeed take that long.
More importantly, when I was younger I had a tendency to be impatient if results were not forthcoming in a short time period like a year. The idea of that it would take so long to accomplish something big was not acceptable.
In terms of trading, I am still in my first year. The very start was discouraging, but now I think things are going in a positive direction, and moreover, I am determined to patiently keep plugging away at it for a good chunk of time, not just one year -- because it feels like a worthwhile endeavor.
Now, I have to figure out how to make my trading capital last at least five years...
OK, I found it, here's the Kevin Kelly blog post, originally the idea is from Stewart Brand:
"My friend Stewart Brand, who is now 69, has been arranging his life in blocks of 5 years. Five years is what he says any project worth doing will take. From moment of inception to the last good-riddance, a book, a campaign, a new job, a start-up will take 5 years to play through. So, he asks himself, how many 5 years do I have left? He can count them on one hand even if he is lucky. So this clarifies his choices. If he has less than 5 big things he can do, what will they be?"
I hear that. I am way behind - My problem with trading is that every year I would repeat the last- changing methods and looking for the perfect solution) I did this for 8 years. Once I stopped that things changed rapidly. The 8 years prior was not totally wasted ( other than a few blown accounts) but had I stopped searching for the grail I could have shaved significant time off. But I didn't know what I didn't know
Hi Welly,
interesting input. Do you want to expand a bit on how you benefitted from seeing a psychiatrist? Did you work on a deliberate programme of improvement with him/her?
Thanks
You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.
The process of course was very personal. He specializes in trading and the core issue had nothing to do with trading.
He says when we trade in the market we are trading against ourselves.
I don't know what it was (and don't want to know). It consisted on 2.5 hours on the phone with him and filling out
a personal questionaire that took me 5 hours.
The first thing I noticed after the 1st session was losers no longer brought emotion they had in the past. In the last 6 weeks since things just keep improving for me.
I had done all the workbooks/ courses and unfortunately they didnt help. I now am able to look at the charts without emotion and follow my plan and that is what makes me emotional now. Getting my entries perfect. It is quite a shift.
It was after this experience that I realized what everyone says is true- Our biggest obstacle to trading is ourselves
and unless a person has had a perfect life they will likely not be able trade the markets and will lose.
1. Do you do any kind of formal written year end review?
Yes, I write AARs every evening before switching my computer off for 2 month now. They areparted into two complexes personal life and learning on trading.
2. Do you do any formal written forward projections and goal setting?
Yes, or better said nearly. I'm currently working out the workbook blueprints for success.
3. Do you lay out action plans for those goals and projections? Step by step or are they more of just big picture items
A kind of... I do a learning route. But I'm distracted often, so I don't know if my mindset is fitting into that learning route.
4. What tools do you use to accomplish these activities/
OneNote; MarketReplay; Methylphenidate (perscripted)
5. Do you use the concept of a retreat/working vacation to work on this stuff? If so, what/where/how does this look for you and your family?
sports (martial arts); long walks with my dog
6. How long have you been doing this?
2 month now (AAR, MPH), Sports for some years now
7. Has it been of any benefit? If yes, tell us a brief story about how it has helped.
Yes, it's a complete different world. I can stay focussed without distraction.
8. Do you use a coach of any kind for this part of your professional life? If yes, who are they and was it/is it worth it?
Yes, I do. Professional helps me to reflect myself.
9 Do you want a coach but cant find one/cant afford one?
-
10. What if anything are you going to do different with regards to your year end review and forward planning process?
establish more possibilities to check my knowledge, to stimulate my short term reward system to stay interested
