Being in the flow happens effortlessly. It is something that just overtakes you and consumes your every being. It’s a wonderful feeling occuring only in activities that you enjoy very much. In my case, trading is one of those activities. Here’s how Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes it: Flow is being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Now that’s something to strive for!
Archives of “wonderful feeling” tag
rssConfidence in Trading: The Approach
Have you ever seen a gorgeous goddess? A woman so magnificent you just are beeming energy inside to go talk to her? But as you walk over you start to notice how you’re walking, what facial gestures you’re making, where your hands are, confidence fading… You’re becoming self-conscious and that wonderful feeling of excitement has now turned into fear. Do you remember the last time you talked to a woman in this energy? In this self-conscious / fear mentality? Didn’t go so well did it? Why is a stock any different?
It’s all about the approach and mental confidence prior to the trade. When you approach an event with fear that energy gets transferred into it. I’ve talked about how The Energy of Fear is Consumption in this prior post. So if you’re feeling nervous before a trade take note of this. Where is this fear coming from? Is it related to money? Lack of confidence in yourself? Lack of self worth? It could be a million different things but you need to find and focus on the one that resonates with you. I’m currently working on a meditation that will assist you through the process of finding this fear and making it your ally.
Remember the emotion will come during the “approach.” Keep track of how you feel, as this will set the course of how the rest of your interaction with the trade will go. Keep in mind that magnificent woman: Do you approach her as nervous, not confident, and fearful of reject or strong, confident and full of love?
On Man’s Search for Meaning
This book serves as an introduction to Dr. Frank’s theory of logotherapy through his experience of three years within the Nazi concentration camps. This existential analysis theory is based on finding meaning to one’s existence and seizing responsibility for it. A gripping story and a very educative and enlightening read within the psychology genre.
Below are key excerpts from the book that I found particularly insightful:
1- “The prisoner passed from the first to the second phase: the phase of relative apathy, in which he achieved a kind of emotional death.”
2- “At such a moment it is not the physical pain which hurts the most (and this applies to adults as much as to punished children); it is the mental agony caused by the injustice, the unreasonableness of it all.”
3- “Apathy, the main symptom of the second phase, was a necessary mechanism of self-defense. Reality dimmed, and all efforts and all emotions were centered on one task: preserving one’s own life and that of the other fellow.”
4- “Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love an in love.”
5- “This intensification of inner life helped the prisoner find a refuge from the emptiness, desolation and spiritual poverty of his existence, by letting him escape into the past.” (more…)