The constant need to improve

One of the prime requirements for improvement is to bring attention to the more important things. When you pay attention to whatever it is that needs to be improved, you start seeing more of it and then you find quickly where your deficiencies are and then can set about to correct them.

This is actually a multipart activity. Not only do you need to understand what needs more attention but you also need to keep other distractions away. There are so many things that come by way of distractions, chief among which is Social media these days. The ability to not access your Whatsapp account or check the mail or watch some stray Youtube content etc. all require powerful efforts themselves! We need to do this first so that we can find the time to focus on what really matters, what moves the needle for us. There is a big skill to be developed in finding the highest and best use for your time and to truly understand what is important to you. More than anything else, controlling your attention is about being able to figure out what you should be working on.

But many times we don’t end up doing this successfully because we feel that it is too hard to do it. For e.g. learning technical analysis to trade better. Everyone wants to be a better trader, a more successful trader and everyone knows that knowing technical analysis will help. But if your mind is flooded with thoughts that it is too hard, you don’t have the time etc. then you will seldom be able to bring the attention that is needed to become a better trader.

Instead of thinking of this learning process as a chore, as a difficult thing to do, it will be a lot easier if you think of it as some kind of fun activity. In other words, focus on the positive side of learning a new skill rather than fill your mind with the negatives of why you cannot do it. Learning TA takes you into the world of patterns and that can stimulate your imagination. It takes you into the world of mathematics, which can be fascinating to money. It takes you into the uncertain trails of Nature’s Law, which can be mystifying. Now all these can be fun too, if you see it from the right perspective! Once the negative ‘too tough’ commentary stops in your mind, you will find that learning is actually easy and fun!

And this is the best time to do something new. The world around is bursting with changes and information of any kind is just a mouse click away. At least, in earlier times, you had the excuse of non-availability of material but now it is certainly not the case. Now is the time not to think about what you do not have but actually to think of what all you can do with what you have!!

All that information overload can also create problems though. There is a danger of reaching for too much. And then getting overwhelmed by it. A case in point could be something like our super software Neotrader. It has something for everyone while the power it packs can also make it everything for someone! The way it is designed, you can use it better and better as you learn more and more of it. But if you try to start using everything that is there in it at the start of your experience, then you may find yourself overwhelmed with possibilities!

The trick lies in reducing what is there on your plate. You have often heard busy people remark, ‘I have too much on my plate already’. They often offer that as an excuse for not doing something. This is not ok. The simple solution is to remove some of the things from your plate and do the rest. That’s all it takes. In the case of Neotrader example that I quoted, the simplest way is to learn a technical or two, use that, become proficient at it and then add more items to the plate. That way, the whole of Neotrader power will soon be yours to harness.

It is all a question of doing things right. There is a way of doing everything. The irony is, we know most of them. But we don’t end up doing them. The simplest thing to remember is that the more you try and do it the right way, the greater the odds that you will succeed.