Trading on Target: How to Cultivate a Winner's State of Mind

STRATEGIES FOR MAKING A CHANGE

Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) offers traders like Joe a very effective set of strategies for making a change in his patterns of behavior and thinking. This strategy will be easier and quicker with the help of a trained professional, but if a trader is committed to making the change and willing to do the work himself, it is entirely possible for him to make this transformation on his own. I worked with Joe on this process and here is what he did:

• The first step for Joe to take was to recognize that he had made deep, unconscious associations with pain that brought him comfort.
• The next step was difficult because Joe had to be willing to experience the pain he actually felt when his parents rejected him. In other words, he had to be willing to really experience the experience.
• Once he had felt the pain, he had to be willing to feel how uncomfortable it really was and conclude that he did not want to feel that way again.
• Then, in the midst of those intense feelings, he had to focus on something that brought him real joy, such as taking his son out to the park and playing catch with him on a sunny spring day.
• As he raised his feelings from pain to joy, he then intensified those feelings until they completely filled his being. At that point, he then began to picture himself succeeding in his trading, making winning trades, coming home to tell his wife and son about his success, and all the things they would then do with his success.
• Now that he had ...