I'm setting goals to build confidence and aim to win big.
By lowering the bar, I aim to rig the game.
This counterintuitive system to set goals that build my confidence has helped me produce big results in the past.
My year has started slow, however, I aim to win.
Here's how I use two simple questions to reset my goals.
"Am I making this harder than it needs to be?"
If every trading session feels like the goal is to "make a million dollars", or "make back what I lost last year", the next trade will be intimidating and the goal feels unattainable.
Instead I set my goal to just make $3,000 a day. Just getting to $3,000, no matter how many trades, no matter if they're ugly or pretty, is a win.
With performance anxiety relieved, with "a million dollars" failure taken out of the picture, I feel I can meet (and usually beat) the goal every time. When setting the goal, I ask myself if I am sabotaging my progress by making it too hard, too complicated, too much. Then move on to question two… "How can I make this easier?"
How can I set my goal lower? My objective smaller? How can I take my objective from the overwhelming "make a million dollars" to the attainable "$1,000 a day"?
It may seem counterintuitive to lower the bar, but it allows me to overshoot my goal, and build confidence and momentum. And the more I continually succeed, the more I will feel I am winning and the more I will achieve.
Sound crazy? IBM in its early days was known for its incredibly successful sales force. How did they become so effective? At the start, IBM set quotas INCREDIBLY LOW to encourage the sales staff not to be intimidated to pick up the phone. Beating their quotas every day gave them confidence and they began hitting sales goals far beyond the expected. They rigged the game and won big-and I can do the same. The feeling I am winning is a precursor to winning on a very large scale.
To stay on track I celebrate the small wins. When I get off the rails, I pull out my trading journal and review some of my best trades. Remembering my wins can get me back on track for current goals.
Each day, in my Lightning Alerts premium watchlist, I'll recap that day's trades and performance, to learn from my $1,000 a day goal.
See you in the morning?  Jason Bond |
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