The quality of your thinking will determine the quality of your life AND your trading.

Excerpt from Mindset Secret for Winning Book:

AVOID BEING AN “AVOIDER”⌗

When I first started competing in shooting competitions, I was having problems with too many “mics” (misses off target). I realized with only 5 percent less mics, I would have won many of the competitions instead of coming in second, third, or fourth. By troubleshooting (pardon the pun), I found that those mics were causing me to lose; if I had erased them, I would have won. As a result, my goal became to avoid mics.

There were two problems with that goal. First, I had been focusing on the problem instead of the solution, and that rarely, if ever, produces a great result. When you tell yourself, “Don’t miss,” what do you picture in your mind? Missing! Instead of focusing on not missing, I needed to focus on hitting the “A” zone (the highest-point scoring area of the target).

The other problem with “not missing” is that it’s a vague goal and not a real solution. Just because I don’t miss targets doesn’t mean the shots put on target are going to be very accurate. Maybe I would start getting a large number of “D” hits and, thus, avoid missing. But that would be at the expense of getting my “A” hits and defeat the purpose.

Most people who want to succeed have conflicting priorities. They would like to win, but they also want to avoid being embarrassed or finishing last. So they trade off not finishing last for not finishing first.

Sports psychologist Bob Rotella said, “If you hate three-putting and your ultimate goal is to avoid making three putts, you’ll two-putt your life away.” He tells his golfing clients, “You better love one-putting more than you hate three-putting.” Bob wants them to envision every shot going in the hole—just like I envision every shot hitting the “A” zone or a basketball player visualizes the ball going in the net. Will you hit every shot perfectly? Probably not. But if you want to be great, that had better be your goal.

I realized that if I focused on putting my shots in the “A” zone, I could simultaneously improve my misses and my scoring. Best of all, I now had a picture in my head of what I needed to accomplish, because no one ever won a gold medal envisioning what not to do. If I wanted to shoot like a champion, I had to envision every shot in the “A” zone and not even think about missing.

If you want to perform like the best, you need to practice like the best—and that means learning how to get the most out of your training with perfect practice.

Just as everyone does, the elite experience setbacks, mishaps and failures, but with a strong self-image strengthened through the right kind of practice, they suffer little esteem damage.

By incorporating the training drills in this chapter into your routine, you’ll not only
expand your skills and increase your competence; you’ll also gain confidence and build your
self-image. It’s all part of building and mastering a winning mindset.  

Repeat: When you tell yourself, “Don’t miss,” what do you picture in your mind? Missing! Instead of focusing on not missing, I needed to focus on hitting the “A” zone (the highest-point scoring area of the target).