Last Friday, I sent you an email asking if you’ve experienced any psychological issues holding you back in your trading (if you missed it you can read it here on my blog)

Yesterday, I gave you a simple, yet very powerful exercise (read it here)

There were a few different purposes in the exercise

1.  To give you a lift and some relief if you’ve been stuck in that dark place where it’s just plain hard to see a bright future for your trading

I know what it’s like to feel so beaten down and continually going through the ‘try-and-fail’ cycle that thinking about the situation is a very small place, filled with a feeling similar to ‘dread’ and almost like having tunnel-vision

So I wanted to share with you one of the handful of tools I’ve found over the years that works and that I turn to when I’m in a tough spot

2.  To give you something specific on which to focus that has a good positive energy to it, for both your conscious and subconscious minds

3.  To create a space in your mind and help you at least open to the possibility of success for YOU

Again, I know what it’s like to be in that place mentally where it just no longer seems possible, for most, but especially for me

If your mind is completely closed, odds are slim to none that you’ll ever make it – got to have that space for the possibility

So here we are today and we’re going to look at the gap between where you are now and where you want to be

And how Alignment is critical to getting you from here to there

So the question is,

Quite often when I ask people (and sometimes for myself too), the answer to this question is,

“Most of the time, ‘Yes’, but the answer is ‘No’ enough of the time that I’m staying stuck where I am,
running in circles and mostly just chasing my tail”

What causes this?

• Fear
• Hurt
• Regret
• Lack of focus
• Impatience
• Lack of discipline
• Impulsiveness
• Chasing trades
• Hesitation
• Doubt
• Over trading
• Self-sabotage

Truth of the matter is that the above list is what many traders consider to be the causes of the problems, when in fact these are the effects, results or symptoms of other things going on, the real root causes of the difficulties

And as you know, when you only attend to the symptoms without attending to the true problem, it will persist and/or reoccur

But when you DO address the real source of a problem, only then do you find real and lasting relief from the matter

Now with trading, there are two rather distinct aspects of the psychology:

Hard-side and soft-side matters

The hard-side includes the tools, skills, know-how, understandings, planning, organization and management

The soft-side is everything else between your ears:  your dreams, fears, thoughts, hopes, conditioning, painful memories, etc

Now one mistake that many traders make is regarding these two matters as largely independent and separate

They’re not

They are closely enmeshed and intertwined

If you don’t have the skills, tools, know-how, etc to do all that you need to do as a self-directed independent trader, you’ll struggle, plain as that, and if you do happen to have some success, it will largely be luck and won’t last long

On the other hand, you can have all the best ‘stuff’ to trade with, but if your head isn’t right, you won’t make it either

If you have subconscious issues, they’ll keep you from finding that ‘good system’ you’ve been looking for, keep you stuck, and cause you to sabotage your own efforts and success when it does happen

If you’re carrying around a mess of stuff from your past, those issues will ensure that you don’t realize your trading goals and objectives

So the big disconnect usually comes from your conscious desires and your subconscious issues being out of alignment

Usually way out of alignment

Unfortunately your subconscious issues will continue to keep your actions out of alignment with your conscious desires until you resolve them

To further make things frustrating, there is a virtual avalanche of information on ‘psychology’ out there and trying to sift and sort through it generally only leads to unproductive overwhelm and information overload

So what can you do?

Tomorrow we’ll look at some different options you have available to you right now

You’ll get a look inside the ‘Getting Your Mind Right’ Group Coaching program to see if it is right way for you to go, but others as well

So that you can attend to the issues affecting your trading and general enjoyment, get your subconscious aligned with your conscious desires and let you finally move forward

Talk with you tomorrow!

Cheers

Brian

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