In today’s article I’m going to talk about an important subject in forex trading psychology called ‘the comfort zone‘.
Before we get into this important trading and mindset lesson, I’d like to talk about a close relative of mine named ‘Vesh‘.
Vesh recently had his 2nd hemorrhagic stroke in 5 years.
Most people who have two hemorrhagic strokes aren’t very functional. Vesh is definitely an exception.
He was a database programmer for decades, and ironically, after the stroke, can still do database programming.
However there are many things he cannot do as a result of his two strokes.
Such as numbers…he’s not that good with numbers any more, and often gets them confused. If he’s talking about something from 100 years ago, he might say ‘Back over 20,000 years ago in England, the British…“
To compensate for his brain being damaged, he eats the same thing every day. It’s what he’s most ‘comfortable’ with and makes it easier for him. Man is it easy grocery shopping for him every two weeks 🙂
How does this relate to the comfort zone and trading successfully?
How your brain and body is wired right now is what you feel most ‘comfortable‘ doing. My friend Ross runs 5 days a week, 2 miles a day, so he feels quite ‘comfortable‘ running 2 miles a day 5x per week.
However if one day, I came up to him and said, “Today you’re going to run 20 miles, and you’ll do this 3x this week,” Ross is not going to feel very ‘comfortable‘. In fact, he’s going to feel profoundly uncomfortable attempting such a feat.
Just like Ross, whatever is outside of your brain, body and psychology to do comfortably right now is called being ‘outside’ your ‘comfort zone‘.
This is where an article by Noah Kagan comes in. Noah is a highly successful entrepreneur who recently wrote an article called ‘How to Step Outside Your Comfort Zone in 2018′.
It’s a well written article with some simple steps to accomplish this, which I definitely recommend reading.
However he makes one major error in how he defines growth in relationship to your comfort zone.
He says, “growth happens outside of your comfort zone.“
While technically true, it’s also ‘false‘ at the same time. Wait, how can something be both true and false at the same time? Let me explain.
Growth in your brain, mindset and body will happen when you go outside your normal programming, or what you’re currently wired to do easily now.
The same goes for you and your trading, and this is why it’s important to go ‘outside‘ your comfort zone, so Noah is correct in saying ‘growth happens outside your comfort zone‘.
However, Noah fails to make an important distinction here regarding your comfort zone.
There is a range you can go beyond this where there is ‘growth’. This range or ‘zone’ has also been discussed by those who talk about ‘being in the zone’ or ‘peak performance’ (image below).
However, if you go too far outside this zone or range, you won’t grow at all. In fact, you will almost certainly fail.
Hence there is a range you can go outside of your comfort zone and still have growth. This is what I call the ‘challenge zone‘ or ‘learning zone‘.
Asking Ross to do 2.5 miles per day is ‘challenging’ himself.
But asking Ross to run 20 miles today, and he won’t grow. He’ll struggle, experience pain, and most likely will fail.
The same goes for you and your trading (especially if you’re struggling).
Where you are right now in your trading process, there are definitely some strategies, methods or tasks you are just not ready for right now.
For example, if you don’t know how to read the basic pillars of price action context in the forex market, you’re definitely not ready to trade a price action strategy. If you don’t even have a trading plan that you can easily execute day in day out, you’re not ready to trade $10 million dollars.
Hence while Noah was correct in stating that ‘growth happens outside your comfort zone‘, so does failure by going too far outside your comfort zone. Venturing too far outside your comfort zone is what I call the ‘panic zone‘ or ‘failure zone‘ (see below).
You have to make this important distinction (and know the difference) if you want to succeed in trading forex.
I think this is where most struggling traders in their trading process fail. I see many traders taking on methods, skills or strategies they simply aren’t ready for yet.
While I think it’s a good idea to ‘challenge‘ yourself and go outside your comfort zone, going too far will almost always lead to failure.
It’s important to learn what are the various steps, skills and mindset you’ll need to learn along the way so you don’t go too far outside your comfort zone, and set yourself up for inevitable failure.
Thinking you can start making money trading price action without having a trading plan, without proper risk management, or without forex training isn’t a path to success. It’s setting yourself up for certain failure.
This is one of the most common mistakes I see struggling traders and students make.
I get it…you seriously want to succeed in trading forex, you want to work from home, and make more money than you could in any ‘job‘. And you see that I make money trading and am a professional trader.
I get it…who doesn’t want to do that? That’s why you’re here, to learn how to trade the forex markets.
But there is a difference between the challenge zone (growing), and failing consistently (failure zone).
If you are constantly losing money trading, and consistently making the same mistakes, most likely you’re going too far beyond your current skill set.
You’re likely in the ‘failure zone‘, which 99+% of the time will lead to you losing money trade after trade, month after month, feeling like you’re not going anywhere.
If you have this feeling, that is actually a good thing, because it’s your self-image and unconscious mind telling you “Hey, you’re too far outside your comfort zone.“
If that is your regular experience, then it’s time to get a forex mentor, one with a proven track record of successful forex trading.
Hence if you want to stop making the same mistakes day in-day out, month and after month, losing money consistently, then check out my trading course or my mindset course, both of which give you insights into the psychology of successful traders as well as a step by step process on how to trade successfully.
Did I describe your process and trading experience? Does any of this sound like you? If so, I want to hear your comments and feedback below.
Tag Archive for: comfort zone
We are on the heels of June and I’ve decided to take on a new challenge.
For the entire month of June (30 days), I’ll be taking on not 1, not 2, but 7 new habits.
I definitely like a challenge, and for me – a successful mindset requires successful habits.
Hence I decided to announce this challenge openly to you and others, sharing all the details along the way.
But before I get into the nitty-gritty details, I need to talk about habits and why they are key to your brain & success.
Why Habits Are Key To Your Success
For you to make money trading and achieve your goals, you’ll have to wire in successful habits.
But you currently have a problem. Your brain will do what it is wired to do most of the time (think 90+% on avg).
And your brain is not programmed to make money trading. So you’ll need to un/re-wire your current programming while creating a successful trading mindset.
Now how your brain is wired (wiring = habits) can be explained by one principle – neuroplasticity.
What Is Neuroplastcity?
Neuroplasticity is your brain’s ability to wire and make new connections. Its also the reason why you can unwire connections and bad habits.
There are two key terms for understanding neuroplasticity. They are:
1) SDN = self directed neuroplasticity
and
2) EDN= experience dependent neuroplasticity
To help you understand the above, just memorize the following statements:
1) Neurons that fire together wire together
and
2) Passing mental states = lasting neural traits
Now one thing that is implicit in the first statement is the following:
Neurons that fire apart wire apart
You’ve probably heard something similar in pop culture, such as the ‘use it or lose it‘ phrase. This statement is completely valid regarding your brain.
Habits are what you create by repetitive actions over a consistent period of time. Creating successful habits requires mental toughness because you’re fighting against your brain’s conditioning.
Once you’ve created a habit, your cognitive bandwidth is now available for other important activities.
Think of what your trading would be like if every time you spot a great trade setup – you pull the trigger without worrying about a loss. How would that help your performance on a day to day basis?
Hence your direct path to successful trading is to build successful trading habits.
NOTE: If you want to learn my personal methods for wiring successful habits into your brain fast – check out my Advanced Traders Mindset Course.
Front End Work For Long Term Benefits
Building successful habits requires most of the work to be done on the front end. What do I mean by front end?
To wire in a new habit, you have to physically (and chemically) create a new series of connections. This takes (at a minimum) consistent repetition over time.
How long? For the expert at this – about 21 days is the fastest you can do this. 30 days would be more reasonable.
What if you are not working 4-8 hours per day trading at least 5 days per week?
You’ll need about 90-180 days.
From my experience as a trading mentor who’s turned many traders profitable, this is one of the biggest reasons why many never succeed. The habit wiring curve takes just a tad longer than most are willing to do consistently over time.
Do you change your pair, price action strategy or time frames if you don’t get the results you want in a few weeks or a couple of months? Do you just jump from mentor to mentor and course to course as you continue to struggle?
If so, then you have a problem because you’re changing critical behaviors before you’ve fully wired in the habit.
Hence you never get the benefits of wiring successful habits into your brain. And then you eventually wonder why you cannot trade consistently.
Sound familiar?
Thus most of the work in building successful habits for you will come in the front end. The good thing is once you’ve wired them in, the rewards (and potential upside) are unlimited.
That sounds like a pretty good trade to me now doesn’t it?
Why Delayed Gratification Is Key
In your journey to create new habits, you’ll be fighting against a primal instinct. This is via instant gratification and one reason why our brains work against us in trading.
The key is to flip the script and opt for delayed gratification. The problem for you is – in a time of instant gratification, most of what you are exposed to works against this.
So you have to go against the grains of every day society and culture.
The bottom line is – if you want ot succeed in trading or life, you’ll need to seek out delayed gratification. This will direct your mindset towards building successful habits over time.
As you begin to add positive habits into your life, you’l build up your self-image along the way.
Having a positive self-image will increase your confidence. Eventually you’ll start to think and believe it is ‘like you’ to succeed.
You’ll believe it is ‘like you’ to accomplish what you set out to do. This is one of the most important things you can build for your mindset.
“The habits you wire in today will become the vehicle for your success tomorrow.”
In the spirit of wanting to build my self-image, habits and mindset, I’m taking on these 7 habits for the month of June.
The 30 Day Mindset Challenge: Will You Succeed?
For the next 30 days (without breaks), I’ll be adding the following habits to my daily routine.
Here they 7 new habits below:
1) 1hr of writing/producing new trading content per day
2) 45 pushups
3) 25 situps
4) 25 squats
5) 30 mins reading a book or article about buddhism
6) 30 minutes reading a book or article on neuroscience and/or mindset
7) 30 mins – 1hr work on the new trading applications I’m creating (will announce at a later date)
Looking at the list above, that is a lot of new habits to take on. We’re talking about adding 3-3.5hrs of work to my day every day for the next 30 days.
Normally I do not recommend taking on such a big load of new habits or hours to your daily schedule. However I have confidence in my ability to manage my time and get this done.
Will you take on this 30 day mindset challenge?
If so, I’d recommend starting with 1 habit to begin with.
Start small and work your way up. There is no point setting yourself up for failure, so work on something you can achieve. Just make it stretch your comfort zone a bit.
NOTE: For a great article about the comfort zone and how it determines your success in trading, click here.
BTW – if some of you are thinking ‘only 25 situps per day?’, my apologies as a) I’m getting older and b) I’ve spent far too much time in the seat lately 😮
All kidding aside (partially kidding…), what new habit will you challenge yourself for the next 30 days?
Write it below along with why you want to work on this.
IMPORTANT: Make sure to work on a habit that you can control the execution of.
For example – you cannot control the market and profits. Hence creating a habit like ‘I’m going to make $5000 per day trading’ will fail because it’s based on something you cannot control (markets).
This is why you only work on habits that you can control.
Now make sure to share below what one habit you’ll be working on for the next 30 days. Be specific along with sharing what it will mean to you to build this new habit.
I’ll be posting updates on this once per week every Tuesday at 930am so make sure to check back regularly.
I’m looking forward to hearing from you. And I’m willing to bet you’ll feel like a more confident version of yourself for completing such a challenge.
Until then – good health and trading to you.
About a fortnight ago I did a trading seminar in Toronto.
I spoke about Neuroscience, the self-image, comfort zone and the trading mindset which had a strong impression on the attendees.
One of them emailed me the following question shortly after:
“Could you point me towards some resources on the trading mindset, buddhist meditation and personal growth?”
I really appreciated this question because part of my work here is to have a positive impact upon people.
Changing someone’s brain and mindset is no small thing.
Most people repeat the same mistakes in trading (and life) because it takes effort and hard work to re-wire the brain.
But doing so in a positive and meaningful way can impact someone for life, just like many people along the way have impacted mine – sometimes from meeting them just once.
And such an impact and change will undoubtedly improve our trading mindset.
In answer to this individual (David), I decided to share 8 powerful resources for buddhist meditation, mindset and personal growth.
#1: Calm.com
What is it? A website that plays calming background music and imagery.
Sounds can have an effect on our brainwaves, breathing and heart-rate. Mozart and Beethoven are notorious for helping to create alpha waves within our brain (~4-10hz helping to keep our minds relaxed but attentive).
I personally use this first thing in the morning to start my day off right and create a calm environment for trading.
You can select from a suite of background images and sounds whichever appease you best.
Click here to check out what they have.
#2: Lion’s Roar
A great website for learning about meditation, buddhism, perspectives on culture and life where you don’t have to be a buddhist to benefit from (nor become one).
The website’s tagline is ‘Buddhist Wisdom for Our Time‘ and I often find some great articles or books in here which reflect a great perspective on an every day challenge we all encounter.
#3: Change Your Brain, Change Your Life (Book) by Daniel Amen
Dr. Amen is one of the pioneers that has done SPECT analysis on the human brain (over 80,000+ brain scans) and has helped us see the brain (and it’s health) in a completely new perspective.
His book Change Your Brain, Change Your Life really demonstrates how the brain impacts our behavior (more than we likely imagine).
He also offers some really good tips on how to improve brain health and has a fantastic ted talk sharing a few key points from the book.
#4: Lumosity
Plenty of gym’s out there to train your body and muscles, but what about your brain?
Enter lumosity.com. Developed by a team of Neuroscientists who made brain entrainment fun and enjoyable.
A ton of my students use this every day and have shown not only better scores in their testing (via lumosity), but continually report a sharper memory, increased focus, and quicker response times.
Your brain needs training, and this program gives you specific tasks to work on memory, speed, problem solving, and more.
Want to train your brain? This is one of my recommendations.
#5: Wheat Belly
Wheat what?
Belly.
As you might have guessed, this book is about wheat and how gluten affects your gut and brain.
This one was an eye opener for me as I LUV’D my bread (part italian) and pretty much ate it (or some form of gluten) every day for decades.
I cannot tell you how much I enjoy sinking my teeth into a good slice of freshly cooked bread.
BUT…I want a healthy brain and gut, and my desire to have those is stronger than my desire to be without them.
I know bread lovers, this one is trodding upon diet which is generally the ‘out of bounds’ area for traders, likely to incite a ‘what the F do you know, don’t tell me what to eat’ type response.
So I’ll just say read it, decide for yourself and I’ll support whatever decision you make.
#6: How to Meditate by Pema Chodron
Pema Chodron is a Western Buddhist teacher who has an amazing ability to teach meditation and buddhism for the every day person in our every day language and experience.
The subtitle to this book (How to Meditate) is ‘A Practical Guide to Making Friends with Your Mind‘.
And that is what we have to do when trading – make friends with our mind.
We cannot beat ourselves down, we must build ourselves up (and our self-image).
We have to learn how to relate to our minds beyond the western psychology and ‘talking about our feelings‘ method.
Western psychology is being replaced by modern day neuroscience and eastern meditation/school’s of thought.
This book takes the latter path but does so in a way that anyone today can relate to.
If you want to become more friendly with your mind and have it start working for you, meditation for trading is one powerful method available .
So check out this book which offers some great insights on the process.
#7: Through the Wormhole by Morgan Freeman
Yes – that same Morgan Freeman (the actor) has a great show called ‘Through the Wormhole‘.
It’s available via iTunes and covers some fascinating topics while asking the hard and provocative questions, such as:
-What Makes Us Who We Are?
-Mysteries of the Sub-conscious
-Is Luck Real? (traders will love this one 😉
-Can Our Minds Be Hacked?
I think you’ll find this show interesting because many of the minds, scientists and thinkers will without a doubt challenge the way you see yourself, your mind and your experience in the world.
#8: The Advanced Traders Mindset Course
Wait…you can’t mention your own course.
Yes…I can.
I’ve spent the last two decades studying Neuroscience, particularly focusing on improving cognitive performance.
Over the last 15 years, I’ve been meditating every day, completed a 1 year meditation retreat, and used this for my trading process and mindset.
I’ve worked with a teacher who constantly challenges me beyond my comfort zone and help me continually grow.
In 2014, I spent over 700+ hours building this course for one purpose – to change the way you think, trade and perform.
Students in the course are no longer seeing their trading and mindset the same.
They are having the ‘aha‘ moments and finally understanding the how, what and why they have performed the way they do.
Many have completely changed their performance numbers around with one student up +12R for the month of May.
I’ve even had many students wanting to teach this to their kids.
This training is that powerful.
For those wanting to achieve peak performance in their trading, visit my ATM Course page and reserve your seat for the next release (only available for a short time).
Did you find these 8 resources useful?
Also what resources do you use to help with your trading mindset and personal growth?
Please share this article with anyone you think would benefit from this as we all need better brains and minds for trading and life.