The Four Pillars of Transformation® • 08.25.08
The Four Pillars of Transformation® form the foundation of the Transformative Trading process. Each pillar represents a key element that must be integrated into the body, mind and spirit of the trader. Once integrated, the trader can advance in his or her trading toward the success and happiness that is the ideal of Transformative Trading.Each of the Four Pillars of Transformation® is presented here as an overview and is covered in much greater detail during the upcoming September 21st Transformative Trading Week in Chicago.
THE FOURTH PILLAR OF TRANSFORMATION
IV. Find Vibrational Alignment
In the late seventies, I learned to ski.
Because I learned to ski as an adult, I retained a healthy fear of heights and of breaking a leg. These fears tempered my enjoyment of skiing, even though I became a passable skier.
On one trip to Breckenridge, Colorado, my brother-in-law, Russ, gave me his new Sony Walkman to use so that I could listen to music as I skied. He said that skiing to music was really terrific.
When I stood at the top of the mountain for my first run of the day, I turned on the Walkman to the tune of Huey Lewis and the News’ “I need a new drug”.
As the music started, I headed down the mountain.
I became lost in the music. I forgot that I was afraid of heights and afraid of hurting myself.
I was moving with the music and I felt in tune with the mountain.
My skiing was effortless.
I was skiing faster than I had ever skied. Yet, it seemed as if I was skiing in slow motion.
This was the first time, I remember, being in Vibrational Alignment, or what is often called being “in the zone”.
The feeling was so exhilarating that I can vividly recall it twenty-five years later.
This is the peak level of performance regularly achieved only by the very best athletes, musicians and artists.
In trading, this is the pinnacle of performance.
If this is the ideal, how do you get it?
The Four Pillars of Transformation® are designed to lead you to this extraordinary level of achievement.
From the First Pillar of Transformation, you need to understand what works for you. You need to have a clear edge in your trading and you need to be ready, without hesitation and without fear, to exploit that edge whenever it occurs.
From the Second Pillar of Transformation, you need to have moved beyond conscious discipline, so that your discipline is ingrained. You need to understand that patience is one of your most powerful allies. Unlike large institutional traders, you are not required to trade. You are able to be patient and wait for only the best trades.
From the Third Pillar of Transformation, you must have made the changes necessary for your personal success and you must be so committed to your own clear plan that you unconsciously know what to do in every situation.
From the Fourth Pillar of Transformation, you need to execute your planned trades without emotion, understanding that each trade is just a small probability. Some trades will work and some will not.
By being emotionally detached from the outcome of each trade and knowing that over time your edge will yield positive results, you will be able to effortlessly execute all of your planned trades without emotion and without fear.
When you are able to unconsciously trade according to your Transformative Trading Plan® and execute your planned trades without hesitation, you will be on the path to Vibrational Alignment.
Transformative Trading will help you find your Vibrational Alignment through application of the Four Pillars of Transformation® and of the Law of Attraction.
To learn more about how the September 21st Transformative Trading Week can help you “awaken the winner inside”, check out our website or simply send me an e-mail to Jeff@TransformativeTrading.com.
Wishing you success in your trading, Jeff
THE THIRD PILLAR OF TRANSFORMATION
III. Aggressively seek positive change
Everyone wants to be successful. Everyone wants a happy life.
Yet, only a small minority of traders achieve long-term meaningful success and still fewer attain success and happiness at the same time.
The reason that most traders do not achieve this level of success is that they are unwilling to make the dramatic changes in their lives and in their thinking necessary to find both meaningful long-term success and happiness.
Most unsuccessful traders repeatedly make the same trades that do not work. They ignore their own trading rules and, naively, expect a positive outcome.
As Albert Einstein aptly said, “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.
In order to get the different results you want, you cannot continue doing what has not worked in the past.
You need to aggressively jettison past habits and beliefs that will not take you to the success you desire.
You need to develop positive habits and beliefs.
But, where do you start?
The first step is to simply recognize that change is necessary.
Resolve that you are not satisfied with where you are. Then, promise yourself that you will do only the things that will help you reach your goals.
Once you are committed to positive change, work to understand where you are in your trading. From the First Pillar of Transformation, analyze what has worked and has not worked for you in the past.
The next step is designing a plan that will take you where you want to be in your trading.
Traders who attend the Transformative Trading Week are shown how to design and complete their own unique Transformative Trading Plan®.
The Transformative Trading Plan® is a comprehensive life-plan for success in trading.
The plan starts with broad, overarching goals leading to specific objectives and strategies. Then, a daily trading plan is developed that clearly identifies the exact trade setups, risk rules and sizing rules that the trader will use.
Every trader who attends the September 21st Transformative Trading Weekwill leave the week with his own comprehensive Transformative Trading Plan® to serve as a guide to his trading once he returns home. And, to assure that each trader achieves the changes he identified and adheres to his Transformative Trading Plan®, he will receive three hours of free One-on-One Mentoring after the week.
Being committed to positive changes and having a clear plan for the achievement of those changes will place you ahead of 90% of all traders.
Adhering to your Transformative Trading Plan® will help you become exactly what you deserve to be - a successful and happy trader.
THE SECOND PILLAR OF TRANSFORMATION
Move beyond conscious discipline
In order to reach the level of meaningful, consistent success envisioned in Transformative Trading, you need to move beyond conscious discipline.
Your discipline must be ingrained.
The difference between conscious discipline and unconscious discipline, for me, is typified by my running career. I started running in order to lose weight and get fit.
When I started the behavior that I wanted (running), I did so by brute force.
In the beginning, I had to force myself to get up and run. I did not allow anything to prevent me from running four days a week.
This is an example of conscious discipline. You concentrate on doing what you set out to do.
For thirty-two years, running has been an important part of my life. Now, I do not have to expend any energy forcing myself to run in the morning. It is an integral part of my day, like brushing my teeth.
This is how unconscious discipline works. Your pre-planned actions are done without thinking and without stress.
The evolution of your discipline in trading needs to work in the same way.
In the first level of conscious discipline in trading, you adhere to your pre-set trading limits. You take all of the trades in your trading plan, and you do not take trades that are not in your plan. At this conscious level of discipline, you concentrate on trading according to your plan.
However, this will not take you to the highest level in your trading.
You need to move beyond conscious discipline to unconscious discipline.
Reaching this advanced level is required for long term success in trading.
Anything less than absolute unconscious discipline will result in your continuously negotiating and renegotiating with yourself on whether to violate or alter your rules.
During the upcoming September 21st Transformative Trading Week, we will show you how to move your discipline to this higher, unconscious level.
The Transformative Trading Plan® you complete during the Transformative Trading Week clearly sets rules and limits for your trading so that the foundation of your discipline is clear and unambiguous.
After the Transformative Trading Week, we will monitor your progress in moving to this advanced state of discipline through the ongoing One-on-One Mentoring that is included in the week.
THE FIRST PILLAR OF TRANSFORMATION
Continuously learn from your successes and failures
The first Pillar of Transformation is to analyze and learn from both your successes and your failures.
As part of the Transformative Trading Week, each trader makes a detailed list of his past successes and failures.
When I attended the very first Transformative Trading seminar, I completed my own list of past successes and failures as a homework assignment.
When I completed the list, I was stunned by the clear patterns evident in my successes and the equally clear, but different, patterns in my failures.
Amazingly, this exercise nearly always reveals unmistakable patterns, although each trader’s patterns are different.
By evaluating what has worked and what has not worked in the past, traders are able to better understand what is likely to work for them in the future.
From this understanding, traders are able to devise strategies and develop their unique, individual trading edge to bring them success.
This ongoing learning from your experiences continues as you trade. Each day, each week, and each month should be evaluated to determine what can be learned from what worked and what did not work.
In this way, the trader is adapting to the subtlety changing markets, over time.
One of the key elements of the One-on-One Mentoringthat each trader receives after the Transformative Trading Week is the structured evaluation of what has worked and what has not worked and, importantly, what can be learned to improve the trader’s performance in the future.
Continuously learning from your successes and failures seems simple, but it is a key element to growing as a trader. Like each of the Four Pillars of Transformation®, its achievement is completely within the control of the trader.
If you would like to take your trading to a whole new level, you should attend the upcoming Transformative Trading Week in Chicago starting Sunday, September 21st.
The Four Pillars of Transformation® will be covered in clear detail and you will develop your own unique Transformative Trading Plan® to serve as your personal, ongoing guide to success in your trading.
To learn more about how the September 21st Transformative Trading Week can help you “awaken the winner inside“, simply check out our website or send me an e-mail to Jeff@TransformativeTrading.com .
Wishing you success in your trading, Jeff
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