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You Can't Become Rich In Your Pocket Until You Become Rich In Your Mind | ||||
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He was probably one of the 10 best floor traders in ChicagoHOW TO USE VISUALIZATION TECHNIQUES TO IMPROVE YOUR TRADING You may be tempted to think Psycho-Cybernetics and visualization techniques are some kind of voodoo magic or witchcraft. When doing these exercises for the first time, you may feel a little awkward. Do not let that deter you. Anything new usually feels a little awkward at first, but with time and practice, obviously it will get much easier. But make no mistake about it. Visualization techniques have been used by millions of hugely successful people all over the world. Theyve used techniques very much like ones youre going to learn about to achieve incredible success in their lives. The real key is they see themselves as successes long before they actually become successes. Another key is that they continue to see themselves as a success in their given field on a daily basis. They certainly dont just sit back and think success is theirs forever. They know they have to nurture it and continue to see themselves in their minds eye as the success they want to be. I had a mentor when I first started at the exchange. He was probably one of the 10 best floor traders in Chicago. He would consistently make a seven-figure salary trading in the pit. But he had one practice that always intrigued me. He would lay on his couch for 30 minutes before the market opened each day and visualize his trades. He would see himself in his minds eye buying and selling from the different traders on the floor. He would picture in his mind the bright colors of the other traders jackets. He would see the quote boards as they displayed the ever moving prices. He would get into winning trades and get out of them at a profit. He would get into losing trades and get out of them the second he thought they would not be profitable. All in his minds eye he would remember the past winning trades hed had, and feel the feelings that those trades produced. Every single day he would do this, and in my opinion, it had a lot to do with how successful he was. The minds eye is a key term in using visualization techniques. This is where you do your visualizing. Its very much like when you read a book or someone tells you a story. You dont just listen to the words, you see the pictures in your minds eye using your imagination. As children, we used our imagination on a daily basis. But as adults, most people use their creative imagination less and less, which is a shame because this is really when we need it most. When we were kids, we used to pretend things. We would imagine a tree we were climbing was actually a huge army fort. We would pretend a play fire truck at the park was a real working fire truck. We could actually drive it to fires (in our imagination) and put those fires out. Because as kids, we practiced using our imaginations on a daily basis, these things (fire truck, tree fort, etc.) seemed very real to us. We could see all the details very clearly. But now as adults, most of us have let our imagining skills deteriorate. Thus, it takes time to re-learn these skills and get benefits from them. Most people, when they see things in their minds eye, they dont see them as clearly as they probably could. Remember, we said earlier that the mind cant tell the difference between an imagined experience and an actual one as long as the images are vividly imagined. Well, the problem is most people dont see the pictures clearly enough. Through time, their imaginations havent been used enough to stay sharp and focused. So you will have to strengthen your imagination so that you can see the mental pictures extremely clearly in your minds eye. Actually, there is a better term that Dr. Maltz uses instead of the minds eye. He actually calls it The Theater of Your Mind. It works well because everyone is familiar with a movie theater. The screen, the projector, the seats, everyone has seen them before and can easily picture them. This is an excellent place to do your visualizing. Dr. Maltz suggests you pick a very comfortable chair in the theater of your mind. The idea is then to watch the big screen in front of you (in your imagination) and watch little movies starring yourself the way you want to be. This can help you with things like pulling the trigger without hesitation, getting out of losing trades, etc. We will talk about exercises using this kind of mental practice later. But the key to using the theater of your mind is to change your self-image. As we talked about earlier, the self-image is the picture you have of yourself. The self-image is also the product of your past experiences, failures, successes, humiliations, and other programming. From these experiences, you create a picture of yourself. So, for example, if youve had some bad experiences in trading, and after a while you lost confidence to pull the trigger when you see a trading opportunity. Most likely, your self-image is that of a person who cant pull the trigger. (Even if you dont consciously think about yourself that way.) Remember, your self-image is a subconscious thing, so you might be a person who cant pull the trigger even if you dont consciously think of yourself that way. But the important thing to remember here is using visualization techniques on a daily basis can change your self-image to the kind of person you want to be. It doesnt matter how others see you, what is most important is how you see yourself. If your image is that of a failure, you will act as if you are a failure. But on the other hand, take comfort in the fact that the picture you have of yourself can be changed and you are the one who can change it. Visualization techniques will work 100 times better than trying to use willpower to force yourself to change. For instance, saying to yourself, I will pull the trigger the next time there is a trading opportunity, will not do any good if it doesnt agree with your self-image. This is why you need to change the image you have of yourself with your imagination. That is the only true way to change. Willpower will not work. Your self-image will always be stronger. Just as an example, an overweight person trying to lose weight by using willpower will never be able to succeed because they most likely have a self-image of an overweight person. Now Im not saying they like being overweight, but they are O.K. with themselves that way in their subconscious. In a case like this, a person will never be able to stay on a diet or go to the health club on a consistent basis using willpower to force themselves. The only way this person will be able to lose weight is if they first see themselves vividly as a thin person in the theater of their mind. They will need to do this on a daily basis until their self-image is changed. The selfimage they have of themselves will always be stronger than their willpower. If they can change that picture, their behavior will change too. You may be tempted to think this wont work or its silly. All I can tell you is Michael Jordan, Dennis Rodman, Bart Star, Ben Hogan, as well as many successful traders believe and have used it to improve their performance. If those people can be so successful from it, the least you can do is give it a try to see if it can be successful for you too. Children as young as eight years old, as well as senior citizens, have all benefited from the use of psycho-cybernetics and the visualization techniques that go along with it. Professional athletes, salesmen, traders and people in many other walks of life have successfully used it to improve their concentration and performance. There is no reason to think you cant do the same thing. We have a choice of either using our success mechanism (by seeing positive, helpful pictures) or using our failure mechanism (by seeing negative images of the past). The choice is up to us. If we start to trade with negative feelings, we will fail before we even start. On the other hand, if we start to trade with positive feelings, that will go a long way to us succeeding. Here are some rules to remember when using visualization techniques to improve your self-image: 1) You must be in a relaxed state when going into the theater of your mind. Michael Jordan is obviously in a relaxed state when he is working his magic on the basketball court. Without being in a relaxed state of mind, its next to impossible to succeed. At the end of this chapter, we will have a relaxation technique that will get you in the right frame of mind to visualize your success. It also helps to be very comfortable, like being in your favorite chair without any distractions (no music, TV, etc.) 2) You must pay close attention to the details of your mental pictures. Remember, in our minds subconscious, we cannot tell the difference between an imagined experience and a real one if the details are vividly portrayed. This is not daydreaming. You must focus intensely on the details around you. The sights, sounds, smells, etc., are all very important for these exercises to benefit you in a positive way. 3) You must act as if you are already the kind of person you want to be. The real key to changing your self-image is to continually think of yourself as already being the kind of person you want to be. If you continually keep in your mind the picture of the way you want to be (for instance, a disciplined, consistent trader), than you need to continue to picture this in your mind, and even more so, you need to keep acting like you are already that way. After not too long, your powerful subconscious will begin to follow suit. 4) You should go into the theater of your mind at least once a day, and preferably, it should be the same time each day. Scientific experiments have shown it takes about 21 days to change a habit or a thought process. In the simplest terms, thats exactly what we are trying to do. We are trying to change a bad or unhelpful habit into a good and helpful one. But doing this takes time. You did not form your bad habits in one day, so its impossible to expect them to change in one day. But, if you consistently use these exercises for 21 days in a row, you will be pleasantly surprised at how your habits have changed. In fact, you can certainly use psycho-cybernetics to change more than just your trading. It can be used to change and improve almost any aspect of your life. Relaxation Technique Calm Body - Calm Mind It is very beneficial to be physically and mentally relaxed before doing the visualization exercises. Here is a simple technique to use in the theater of your mind to bring on relaxation. 1) Sit down in a comfortable chair or lie on a bed. There should be no other distractions. Turn off the TV, radio, and the lights. Go into the theater of your mind. See yourself in a comfortable theater getting ready to watch a movie about you. 2) Again, remember to pay attention to details. What is your theater like? How does the seat feel? Is the screen big or small? Are you sitting in the middle row or at the aisle? Are there arm rests on the chair? How do they feel on your arms? The details are very important. 3) Lie down and imagine your bodys a series of rubber balloons. There are two valves in your feet. They open and air escapes from your legs. Your legs collapse until they are empty and lie flat against the bed. A valve now opens in your chest and your whole body begins to collapse limply against the bed. Continue this exercise with the arms, the neck, and the head. You dont have to do this in bed. If youre in the office, try to fix a picture of yourself in your minds eye of yourself lying in bed doing the exercise. You will actually feel the relief from being relaxed. Physical relaxation leads to mental relaxation. When practiced daily, it gives us that relaxed attitude which allows us to better control our actions. Each time you practice this technique, when your body and mind are feeling completely relaxed, be sure to say to yourself mentally, Calm body, calm mind. This deepens the programming of your servo-mechanism. As you practice this technique, you will find the time it takes you to become relaxed will be shorter and shorter. Eventually, you will be able to relax totally at any time, and in any situation, simply by saying to yourself mentally, Calm body, Calm Mind. |
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