Maintaining your focus and thus concentration is vital to your success in all competitive endeavours.
I purposely slowed my life down to the few really important things so that I can concentration fully on them. This has significant payoff for my trading.
Consider the following:
- I have no cell phone or ianything
- I don’t tweet, facebook or social network
- I don’t watch CNBC or any TV for that matter
- I moved to a small town that has only 5 traffic lights
What I do have is cool, clean, fresh mountain/sea air.
When I do drive, there are never any traffic jams or assholes that cut me off.
When I get together with my 3 or 4 real, live friends we have a good time, skiing, climbing, hiking, mountain biking or hanging out. These are the people who have literally held my life in their hands and I theirs when rock or ice climb. We have a strong bond.
My face is not planted in an electronic device talking about irrelevant stuff for hours.
I don’t multitask.
This all relates back to my trading in that I can be totally focused on the moment at hand. No interrupting phone calls, tweets, texts, emails, CNBC drivel. You may not understand what an advantage this gives me. Coupled with my simplified trading system and no expectations it allows me to concentrate absolutely on my plan. With only a few things to think about it is very easy to think deeply about them. I believe this is a hallmark of any champion. Thought power is not strewn across many areas in rapid succession. Focused thought is very powerful. Solidarity with yourself.
If you find yourself wondering about in a mental stupor you first need to eliminate distractions. Keep out external noise. Do not let other peoples thoughts or requests enter into your mind. You don't need their propaganda.
Turn off your phone. Never check for e-mails during market hours. Never surf the net during market hours. Let other people know that you are not to be disturbed during market hours for any reason except if someone you know is dead or dying.
Concentrate on your internal thoughts. Make yourself accountable to yourself. You shouldn’t lie to anyone else so don’t cheat yourself by breaking your concentration for things that do not matter.
Keep your goals in the forefront of your mind- start with why are you sitting in this chair; To trade your plan and nothing else. Be disciplined. Do not waiver. Keep your internal thoughts on what you need to do to achieve your goals. Anything less and you open yourself up to defeat by mental mush.
Doing the visualizations and affirmations before you start your day is a great benefit. You are preparing yourself for all eventualities before they arrive. Fear and greed cannot interfere with your judgment if you have already faced them down and developed a plan to effectively deal with them. When you turn uncertainty and loss into probability and profit you are in the correct mental state for trading in the zone.
