#Winning

Two things to winning.

1) Spend more time on it strategically than your competitors.

2) Approach your time involved more intentionally, by seeking to learn from your weaknesses and understanding your success/strength.

Bring the endurance/marathon mentality to the above and it will be hard for you to lose. Of course, by that time, you've done all the work, paved the way, and paid your dues through preparation. You'll win.

ATTENTION!!

From Abnormal Returns...this applies to trading and to life at large. Be stingy with your attention...

"Attention is a zero-sum game
How you spend your time (and attention) as a trader is a key driver in your eventual performance. We all have a limited amount of time we can devote to the markets, therefore maximizing the impact of that time is crucial. This point was driven home in reading Margaret Heffernan’s interesting newish book Willful Blindness: Why We Ignore the Obvious at Our Peril in which she writes:

After a decade of experiments by himself and others [Dr. Daniel] Simons, concludes that we see what we expect to see and are blind to the unexpected. And there are absolute hard limits to how much we can take in at any given time.

“For the human brain,” say Simons, “attention is a zero-sum game: If we pay more attention to one place, object or event, we necessarily pay less attention to others.”

Our attention is a limited resource worth shepherding. The question is for traders whether their time is well-spent watching financial television? The problem is that the way television is designed disrupts our ability to think. Heffernan writes:

The bottleneck that characterizes our ability to receive information explains why we cannot intelligently absorb all the information presented to us on TV screens like those displayed by CNN, Fox and CNBC. The scrolling text, sidebars and stock prices don’t make us smarter or better informed; they make us stupid. While we are watching such a busy array, we can’t efficiently think, discriminate or make critical judgments.

Trading is hard enough under the best of circumstances. If you continuously expose yourself to inputs that don’t make you “smarter or better informed” you are doing yourself a disservice."

Better Than Bigger

I recently learned the difference in terms that affects anyone who's a parent, mentor or leader of any kind.

In the effort to raise our kids combined with being responsible for their learning through homeschool, we talk all the time about their development. I'm sure most parents do, and we definitely do especially because it all falls on us we have a bit of extra "fear" that we want to get it right as possible. The difference in terms I read recently was the difference between teaching and training.

Teaching is when you show someone something,

Training is when you've passed along "the will" for them to do it right without your involvement.

So, for example, you can show your kids how to make their bed, but you haven't trained them in it until they can do it consistently well without your input. That is a startling contrast to how most of us take our responsibilities in training. Now bring the idea of training to developing the spiritual foundation of our kids. A question we wrestle with all the time is how to establish a strong spiritual connection between themselves and God so that they seek him, talk to him and know him deeply.

Given the ages of our kids, one of the things we've attempted to do is to keep the basics basic - even while they increase their learning. We thought, if they can just know that God is bigger than anything AND know that he is good...really really good, then they will want to seek him. So, we've spent time just showing them daily or weekly examples of how much bigger and better he is than things they can relate to.

On this journey and knowing enough about how life goes something emerged...most people who don't chase after God, probably don't because they struggle with his goodness. They question his way over their own, their not sure that he has their best interest in mind. In a sense, they question his goodness and his goodness for them.

So know that we've spent ample time conveying the God is Big and God is Good message, we feel convicted to harp on the fact that while he's Big AND Good, God is Better....Than he is Bigger. He's worth trusting and he's worth trusting completely. Hold all of life with an open hand and just listen to him, then act. He has your and mine best interest at heart.

I hope we can not just teach them this, but may we train them as well so that they seek him no matter what.

A Thousand Conversations

We live in a time, when attention is held briefly and decisions are made likewise. Short-term thinking persists our world. The goose is killed for the golden eggs it has now.

But there are those among us, looking longer. Often though, the longer term thinking relates toward activity, results and "Success".

Success becomes the things we do. What is achieved, is valued. Wealth. Position. Results. Well prepared and trained children. A happy marriage. Strong friendships.

Things that are good can become the objective. Achieving takes the pole position.

So what? What's wrong with achieving? ...Nothing. If you're not achieving, scripture has harsh words for not fulfilling your stewardship responsibility with your talents, time and opportunities. But, achieving is not the ultimate end to who we are becoming. Our soul is.

Our soul, that confusing, not easily understood place in our lives that we sometimes call our conscience, our heart. The soul is who we really are. The thousands of conversations and self-chats we have through ideas, brief thoughts, thoughts of others, thoughts of ourselves, thoughts of God. No matter how transparent we are with others, our soul knows us more. Our soul is the reality of ourselves and how we see life, and therefore how we decide to be and act in life.

The soul is our core and our soul has to be cultivated. This IS the end of our lives. More than who we are when no one is looking, the soul is what is in our hearts and mind that no one else will ever be able to to fully discern. The soul is our depth. The soul contains all of our "layers" that make the whole of us.

Living for the soul, brings contentment, joy and a beautiful connection with our creator. We cultivate the soul we have by thinking as our creator thinks, by living according to his way, not just on the outside, but maybe more importantly with every thought that crosses our mind. More than how we treat others, how do we view them? Do we serve them, but secretly see ourselves as more important, more loved, more anything...seeing ourselves as better? Do we lead others and lead with excellence, but secretly and ultimately make sure we're taken care of at the end of the day? When we walk through our day and encounter countless individuals, what are the biases and perspectives of ourselves and others that we hold on to?

For some, their view of their self is an ongoing defeating self conversation where they can never be good enough, be successful enough as they compare themselves to others. This is damaging to our soul because this is a lie as well. When we connect our soul and align it with the way of our God, our perspective aligns and our heart is nourished. When our heart is nourished and our self-agenda is tossed to the side, an amazing beauty emerges from within that is indescribable though it is impossible to mistake.

We have to know the thoughts of God. We have to "take captive of every thought" and run it through the filter of the Almighty. Christ took the "actions" of the Old Testament and then made them applicable at our soul's level, through what we think and feel. If we lust, if we're in wrong anger, then we're damaging our soul. The inner thoughts matter.

I do not say any of this (or anything I ever say) as one who has conquered or as one who has figured "it" out. We are all inspired in the image of our God, but we are broken and living in a broken and beautiful world. I would submit that we are on a journey with God, toward God. He has something beautiful to say about the greatest pain we experience, the normal day to day as well as our mountain top success. God is in our soul and about our soul as well as he is about anything else. He wants to be in those thousand conversations we're having every day. Invite him into your success, your views on everything and even your sin. Let him permeate the very core of who you are, and believe that his way is better. His way gives us life, and life to the full.

This life to the full will not be judged completely from the outside, but it will transform who you are from the inner spaces that no one else will ever see.

Yes, may we chase wisdom, but may we live life from the heart and cultivate our souls by immersing our thoughts in our God.

Possible

The road to anywhere begins with belief, at least a thought that the desired can occur.

I search history for patterns, for ways that success and failure has occurred. In almost every instance, greatness reveals itself with hope, success with belief. From POWs, great adventures of Everest, Lewis and Clark, The American Revolution ... the unlikely, almost impossible continues to occur.

Life presents challenges and others often want you to color within the lines. Greatness in one area is usually accompanied by weakness, even ineptitude in another. Excellence coexists with ignorance and this throws the masses expectations. This causes doubt, even personal questioning. But resilience and belief are called upon.

We need each other. The self made man rarely if ever is. The roles of the Team. The parts of the Body. Experts and various expertise are almost always needed for dreams to come alive. The dreams aren't about you, it's about something bigger. But, you're up for the task, the road ahead needs a vision and perseverance. These two aspects breakthrough the resistance when combined. Motivation and endurance are required for the journey.

Believe in the dream and know that it is possible. Now go to work.

Don't Chase The Train

'The price of discipline is less than the pain of regret.'

Life often seems complicated & difficult. Events sneak up on us & catch us off guard. Many times, it seems the train has left the station & we're working our best to catch up.

The overwhelm of 'the everyday', others' expectations, existing responsibilities & our own hopes & dreams weigh upon us. We spend more time firefighting than truly living life.

We do too much. We stay too busy. We think in terms of others' perspectives. We don't think much. I mean, we think, just not much about how things should be, how we should be in a way that translates to making necessary changes. We think more about the catching up we need to do & not nearly as much about how to get in front of the train to change the trajectory of the tracks.

So we wind up being a response to the world around us when the world around us should be a response to us. Pro-Act is to act in advance. The only way to act in advance, is to think in advance. Think way ahead of time. It's not really thinking that far in advance, but our culture & those around us will make it seem unusual. That's because most of the time, they are living behind.

Behind is normal. Not ready is the usual way. Lack of preparation seems easier on the front end & leads to much more difficulty afterward.

I have this conviction, that if we think about what we want, we think about the right questions to ask, then with counsel, understanding, seeking, learning & thinking, we will determine very good answers. If we think, we can live in front of life. I believe this is wisdom.

So, we must think. Take time to ask the questions in front of the train. How & who do we want to be? What situations should we prepare our children for? What routines do we need to change & alter? What are the values & purposes we need to inject more into the moments of our life?

Those are some questions, there are many many more to be asked. Thinking ahead will make your doing more valuable.

Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.
Peter F. Drucker

Who Cares

When you care, you want to help. But, you are responsible to ... not responsible for ... someone. Handle the responsibility toward them with great care, do what you can, but don't try to control the outcome. The outcome is not yours, the journey is. Do your part well and have peace.

Impossible

Everything is "Impossible" before it is achieved. ~ Nelson Mandela

If you do the same thing as everyone else, how will you get different results? Of course, if you do things another way, then you will encounter risk, danger of "failure", ridicule, and by sticking your neck out, you could get embarrassed. The world has its systems, its ways and most stay in its flow, because its comfortable there. It's just easier that way.

It is like we are in a river and the flow is down stream, without much resistance, we will be going the way the world has designed us to go. Stay in front of the t.v. Be short sighted. Live based out of other's perceptions. Keep up with the Joneses. By the bigger house. Grab the most possible. Leave marriage behind because, "love" isn't there anymore. Just get by at work. Increase the noise and the pace of life because activity must provide value. Doubt that anyone could know more than you.

Or:

Find convictions and live them out regardless of the noise. Live life for more than self gratification. Be courageous and adventurous in the face of "normal". Love by more than words. Impact the world through intentionality in the unique calling. Do things different than the flow. Give more. Slow life down for priorities. Be still and know that he is God. Live simply. Invest in your children preparing them for all of life. Believe God.

So then...the paths lay out before us. One is the way of the world and the other is available to us as well. The latter may seem Impossible sometimes. It just seems too hard. We take one step forward and it seems we experience a reversal. The way of the world doesn't want us to escape. It wants to keep us comfortable and reactive. We can feel the flow pressing upon us, but that is not our direction. We have the vision and intention to break the resistance. Our way is forward.

In our home, our children will tell you, "can't" is a bad word, actually...it doesn't exist. It looks more like this, " ". Confucius wrote, "He who says he can and he who says he cant are both usually right."

People say it is Impossible. Everything is, before it is achieved.

Too Often We Are Scared

I collect items that speak to me, messages or pieces that motivate me in a worthy direction. There was a Barry Sanders Nike, "Just Do It" ad from the late 80's that did just that. Here it is...

Too often we are scared.
Scared of what we might not be able to do.
Scared of what people might think if we tried.
We let our fears stand in the way of our hopes.
We say no when we want to say yes.
We sit quietly when we want to scream.
and we shout with the others,
When we should keep our mouths shut.
Why?
After all,
we do only go around once.
There's really no time to be afraid.
So stop.
Try something you've never tried.
Risk it.
Enter a triathlon.
Write a letter to the editor.
Demand a raise.
Call winners at the toughest court.
Throw away your television.
Bicycle across the United States.
Try bobsledding.
Try anything.
Speak out against the designated hitter.
Travel to a country where you don't speak the language.
Patent something.
Call her.
You have nothing to lose
and everything
everything
everything to gain.

He quit at the peak of his game. He did it against the grain. He did it his way.