Investors and traders have their quirks or habits and are usually super consumers of something. One thing that I always consume is positive, motivational video clips on YouTube. I have a habit of jumping in my white F150 Supercrew pickup to take my daughter to horseback riding lessons and asking Siri to play a motivational speech on YouTube.
I don’t care which video. Some I like more than others, but it’s always interesting to hear completely random people share motivational content. Some of it is curated of all the greats, others are from individuals. Very uplifting and I love having the hairs stand up on the back of my neck when I hear something that really connects with my current situation.
I just checked my YouTube account and have this one as a favorite. It’s called Your Attitude Is Everything. I remember listening to this when I was at the gym on the incline trainer this spring, and that’s because I really connected with it. It sparked a drive in me to best my last distance, and that feeling I thoroughly enjoyed.
I grew up listing to my dad’s audio cassettes in his car. Now I do the same with my kids. Go figure…
About three years ago now, I stopped watching any negative/dark TV shows just because I didn’t like bad feelings or being nervous/tense just before bed. I found it not to be beneficial for my mind or body, which leads me to what I wanted to write about and share today with you.
Investing with intention
Investing involves engaging all of your energies and strengths, not merely your mental ones.
It means activating your inner strengths and engaging in positive self-talk and physical action. It means both affirming what you want and being satisfied with being on the journey. It means honoring your intention, even if you have not yet reached your goal.
Investing with intention means pushing your comfort zone, appreciating every nuance of investing, and appreciating yourself for being conscientious as you do. It means that envisioning your current and future trades and how they connect with your end goal counts as much as executing the trades which your investing strategy generates.
The first step to making your investing career successful is imagining it so. Envision yourself as a person who takes all trades within your strategy with a positive attitude and who experiences the rewards of dedication.
Investing with intention means persistently and actively affirming your goals. This is so that you don’t forget or diminish their value when you face a challenge or losses. You want to be intimately connected with both the process and possible outcomes.
In a short white paper, I share how you can create a Bear Market Proof Investing Strategy. It’s worth printing and reading over a hot or cold beverage as it’s a comforting read.
Your Commitment to the Process
Make a change in how you relate to this process. Instead of merely measuring the outer barometers (ticks, points, dollars, account size), focus on your inner ones. This is no different than changing your perception of what is important when you are trying to ‘get healthier and lose weight.’ The number on the scale is only a number and by no means an indication as to your results. If you feel better nourished and stronger, and your clothes are looser, then does what the scale says really matter?
Commit regular time with yourself in evaluating the more subtle contexts of your investing. This does not mean fretting over why you entered a trade that didn’t work out or thinking how impossible it seems to get ahead. Instead, it means looking at how you truly approach your investing as it relates to your goals and giving yourself a regular report card. And, as hard as it is for some of us to do, it means giving yourself a pat on the back when you honor your intention, even if you haven’t yet reached your final goals.
And here is something really important – stop muttering to yourself, and stop chastising yourself for lapses. You are human, and you are learning. Learning denotes that you are going to try something and make mistakes, or it’s not going to work out like you thought. Instead of beating yourself up, close your eyes and take a couple of deep breaths. Envision yourself working at your goal and that the road to success is not a direct line from A to B. Put your energy into reinforcing your trust that you truly can do this and that it may take some extra time to come to fruition. A part of you is already where you want to be. It just takes time to open up and take the next step.
Keep reminding yourself that each time you affirm your intention and each time you commit to the process, you are actually doing something positive. This process itself will help to clear away your fears. It fills you with a new sense of what investing can be for you and your family, and it tells you why you can do it if you really want to. Don’t just wish you could trade with intention – actually believe and know you can trade with intention. Take the first step and trust where you will lead yourself.
The Correct Path Leads to RELIEF
Relief is what you will feel because now you will have the skill set, strategy, and know-how to execute a consistently profitable strategy.
Once you have reached that milestone of KNOWING that you’re ‘Okay,’ you will be able to enjoy a feeling of security.
You finally know that you can relax and settle down. You gain a certain peace of mind about yourself that people notice and may even comment on. In fact, I find others mention how relaxed and easygoing I am, especially during unusual market conditions. I believe that’s because I know where I am, where I’m going, and how to reach my goals. The way I see it, I’m just going to continue improving my investing strategies and help as many other individuals reach financial freedom with me.
“My journey to greater success is to help as many others reach financial freedom and make more money every year from their investments than they earned working. Or put another way, I’m helping individuals become wealthier in retirement, which is the opposite of what most retirees experience.”
Chris Vermeulen – Founder of Technical Traders Ltd.
Your time and energy are now focused on expanding your investing capabilities, increasing your annual income, and creating more free time. You become the type of investor that can, in a calculated and business-like fashion, take ANY investing strategy or method and validate it properly to be sure it fits within your comfort/risk levels.
Because you are no longer struggling and stressed to find a quality investment solution for your retirement capital, you can think more clearly, and if any part of a new potential investment puts your long-term goal at risk, you can pass on the idea and keep looking and waiting. When you do find something you like, you do so with well-founded confidence and the proper long-term mindset required to follow and execute the strategy, and you have a reasonable expectation that it will meet your financial goals.
The Process Must Match Your Personality
You must enjoy and trust the process of investing. It’s a long winding road, and it takes time. If you are going to do something that lasts for years and you want to actually enjoy it, you better make sure it matches your personality, skills, and available time. I wrote about this and provided a little quiz for you to learn your personality type and how it will affect your investing results in the post: A Valuable Lesson In Knowing Your Own Personality Type For Investing.
As you go through this process, you become one of those investors that has the skills, tools, and know-how to adapt quickly and confidently when the economic climate or market mood changes. You will also be able to broaden your portfolio of systems to maximize your profit potential as an active investor.
It’s about the thought process. If you’re committed to becoming a professional golfer, for instance, you’d have to think like a professional golfer. You’d have to eat, breathe, and sleep golf, and you’d also have to know the technical aspects of golf in order to progress and win. Golf is a perfect example because it’s a mental game. When you swing a golf club for the first time, the instructor corrects you and tells you to swing in such a way that feels unnatural, yet it turns out to be the proper form. It’s not like swinging a baseball bat. A golf swing is technical in nature. You have to set aside your natural emotions or desire to swing it hard and hit the ball in favor of the technical aspect of the proper, gentle swing that uses physics and aerodynamics. This swing maximizes the way the club was built to launch the ball in the air and puts it exactly in the direction you need it to go. It’s a technical process and requires the right mindset.
I will go into detail about why technical analysis is critical for success as an investor in my next article, so stay tuned. But, until then, if you didn’t read my post about how Only Price Action Pays, Not The News, Earnings, Fed, Or Your Gut, it touches on some key points you may find useful.
Chris Vermeulen
Chief Investment Officer
www.TheTechnicalTraders.com