Lesson #6: Find The Right Mirrors, Part 2

The good Dr. starts the paragraph with "When you serve as your own coach, your challenge is to structure your learning and development so that trading itself becomes an experience that mirrors your growing confidence and competence".   This idea is probably worth the price of the entire book.  But to pull off a feat like this takes continual, painstaking effort.

Brett then hammers home the point again about to properly self-coach: it's got to go beyond just pointing out "what I did wrong".  For most, self coaching is nothing more than self-criticism.

One of the best means for creating mirrors is the structured pursuit of goals.  When we create challenging, meaningful, and doable goals, we generate potential experiences of mastery and success.  Brett highlights the next point, and so will I:

When we make goal setting an ongoing feature of our self-coaching means, we continually construct opportunities for powerful, self-affirming emotional experiences.  

So here is the assignment:

1) Each day this week the journal should include: A) A specific goal to work on for the day, B) Concrete actions to take to achieve the goal and C) A self-evaluation at the end of the trading day to gauge my success in reaching the goal.

The goal should be a trading process that I wish to improve (i.e., something that I have no control over). 

For this week, I'm going to have the goal of trading a few experimental trades with short targets.  While on another account, pursue larger moves.  I need to find a way to get the win rate up.

If I end the day with a fine grade, then I move onto something else.  The idea is to never trade without consciously working on some aspect of my trading.

This approach of self-coaching and self-improvement has to be a part of my ongoing career. Because it not just about making money, it's about creating experiences that will sustain my sense of competence and confidence.

The lesson closes out with this point:  If you limit losses, pursue your strengths, and take concrete steps towards mastery, every single trading day can be a positive experience, even when you're not making money.  You cannot eliminate losing days, but there should never be days that leave you feeling like a loser.

Finally, his coaching cue is to grade for IMPROVEMENT.  Not perfectionism.  Not everything has to be perfect.  But improvement, no matter how little, IS improvement.  And that's what you're looking for.