Today’s we’re going to take a look at some mindsets that are trading goals vs. trading intentions.
What are the Trading Goals?
I think goals are exciting when it comes to trading. A lot of people set goals, and they’re pretty easy in the sense of because their numeral, right there are numbers that are attached to goals.
Let’s say the leaders, the people who are pushing you to be better; hey you got to be able to do five times your gross revenues, i.e. five times well. What’s your goal? Well, it’s $1,000. Means you should be able to do that five times better now or how do you improve it while you’re making, let’s say you know three hundred dollars every single day from trading well how you grow that by five percent.
You know these goals when it comes to a number based thing that you’re doing here that’s trading. They’re very, very black-and-white because they’re all numbers related and that’s good on the one hand. Because you can see, hey, did I hit the goal oh or not? So it’s a binary situation, and the answer is going to be either a Yes or a No! Now, on the one hand, that’s good because then you know, you’re accountable, did you hit it or just not. Did you make your thousand dollars this month, or did you not? Or did you make your fifty dollars this month, or did you not.
You’re accountable for it, but the downside of that is; goals will constantly shift right, i.e., goals are continually changing, and they should also be evolving. This means, they grow and you grow as a trader. You’re growing, your goals, those are increasing your account should be growing; maybe you’re struggling, and you need to fine-tune your goals, and it’s difficult in the sense of well if you’re not hitting your targets then you kind of feel like a failure.
What are the Trading Intentions?
There’s the other approach to this, which I like looking and thinking about, and that is intentions. An intention, when we look at intentions, it’s much different than goals. It’s kind of like your desire for what you want to accomplish internally. A goal a lot of times, when I look at it, it’s external right! What did you make, what did you hit, you know what’s outside of your control, and that makes it very difficult.
Take, for example, a dancing competition. If you have intentions and we look at a dancing competition, your goal might be to go ahead and get first place in the race. Those could be gymnastics as well but any event where you know you’re being judged, or you’re trying to compete in the sense of that’s not clean-cut right(It’s somebody else’s opinion).
When you’re looking at a dancing competition who performed better, who had better lines, who was more on the beat, all of these are subject to someone’s interpretation. It’s very tough to say, hey did he get first place, that couple get the first place or did that couple get second place yes you might have experts evaluating, but it’s tough to really say that.
When you look at intentions, they’re much different. If we look at goals like if you didn’t get first place, you’re a failure, if you didn’t get the second place you’re a failure, they didn’t get the third place you’re a failure right. You’re looking at all of these things just on the goal side like you didn’t hit your medal or your mark or your placement because those were not in your control.
Looking at Intentions at a Deeper Level…!
What about when we look at intentions? Let’s say; you’re dancing, well the critical question is if you evaluate yourself, were you better at hitting the beat than you were before. Means that could be one way looking at things were you able to land that move that you were working so hard on that, maybe you couldn’t do in practice as well were you able to do that quite well and if that might be a yes or no right.
You’re looking at things that are more internal to you; were you able to do those things, and accomplish those things and if you were then now, you’ve kind of won, and you’re successful. Whereas over here, if you got second place, and you didn’t get first, you kind of already is a loser and that’s sometimes can play on you psychologically, which is not always the best thing.
If you want to go even more internal right if we go even deeper well you could say hey well rather than looking at placement look at doing the things that will get you to placement what are the things that you need to do to get to first place;
Well to get to first place, I’m going to say:
- I need to practice five times a week
- Also, go and to build up my cardio for dancing
- I need to go running
- I need to go ahead and make sure I get a coach to evaluate me at least three times
- Two different coaches( so a second coach, i.e. they can determine my moves and what I’m doing right or wrong)
- I need to look good – seamstress or stylists or whatever to overlook things
All of the above things now are in my control… Very direct control. Now if I still don’t get first if I did all of these things and I made my list, I was successful now you might say hey well you even didn’t get first place, but at least you’re making progress and this is the way I want you to start thinking about it.
You know these external goals are great, and sometimes it pushes people to hit i.e., I gotta make $1000 a month. I’m trying to hit fifty dollars a month and try to hit a hundred dollars a month. Whatever your goal is and even if you’re shooting bigger fifty thousand a month or 100,000 a month or whatever your case is, that’s all good and great. But if you don’t hit it, are you feeling like a failure is you struggling, and the question is, are you doing the right internal things to reach those goals, and that’s a little bit more important to me.
Because for me, when I looked at doing and trying to hit these goals, I always felt like a failure; the goals kept moving the goalposts kept running. You always try to hit more and bigger instead now, what I try to do is look at; hey am I putting on the whatever number of trades that I want per week or a month based on my current living situation. Am I managing them correctly? Am I adjusting them at the appropriate times? Am I waiting too long, or am I doing them at the right time?
Internal Concept – The Right Path:
You start looking at the internal concept of it, and if you’re doing the internal things correctly, eventually maybe not in the first competition or not the first few trades or the first few months you’re going to be successful. But perhaps a few months later and then eventually you keep getting more and more consistent more and better, and that starts to build up, and you start in a way winning more of those dance competitions.
That’s what I want you to think about when it comes to goals versus intentions, and if it helps start focusing on what’s your intention. Because now, you can control it, and you can focus on it, and rather than focusing on your goals and eventually the goals, the external things that you set up will be the result of doing the right internal things.
