How tempting is it to photoshop (or embellish) a little? In a recent survey of 2000 British people, more than 75% admitted to lying about themselves on social profiles.
Here is a chart ranking the most common topics people are most dishonest about.
Yesterday was Yom Kippur, one of the High Holy Days for Jews, otherwise known as the Day of Atonement.
As part of the holiday, we read down a list of sins (text available here), apologizing for the ones that we committed, and asking forgiveness. In addition, we promise to do better next year.
It's really interesting how little human nature has changed in the past several thousand years. The list of sins is just as relevant today as I imagine it was back then.
In Part 2, I talked about normalizing your habits and picking consistent, normalized metrics. This doesn't just work at the gym; it applies to life and business as well.
Today, I want to explain how and why this helps. To do so, we will talk about controlling your arousal states.
Chemically, most arousal states are the same. Meaning, the same hormones and neurotransmitters that make you feel fear also can make you feel excited. They affect your heart rate, respiration, etc. ... Though, the outside stimuli you experience likely determines how you interpret what is happening.
In most situations, a heart rate of 170 beats per minute is an indicator of extreme danger (or an impending toe-tag). If I felt my heart racing like that in a meeting, it might trigger a fight or flight instinct. I prefer conscious and controlled responses. So, I train myself to recognize what I can control and to respond accordingly.
One way I do that is by being mindful of heart rate zones during exercise.
My goal is to get as close to 170 bpm as I can, then stay in that peak zone for as long as possible.
Here is a chart showing a Fitbit readout of a recent exercise session.
As you can see, every time I reach my limit ... I get my heart rate back down. It becomes a conscious and controlled learned behavior.
It's a form of biofeedback; it's not only gotten me better at controlling what happens after my heartrate reaches 170 but at identifying when I'm close even without a monitor.
Now, when my heart rate is at 170 bpm(regardless of the situation), I don't feel anxious ... I think about what I want to do.
This is a very useful tool.
It's the same with trading ... Does a loss or error harsh your mellow – or is it a trigger to do what you are supposed to do.
Getting used to normalized risk creates opportunity.
When you are comfortable operating at a pace, or in an environment, that others find difficult – you have a profound advantage and edge.
When your doctor tells you that you are fat, it is easy to discount (because you pay them to tell you that). When your massage therapist tells you that you are getting fat, you've got to listen (because they're trying to be nice to get a better tip).
Well, for the past two months, I've been getting back into fitness.
I used to be a competitive athlete. So, exercise was about gaining an edge and competing better. In a sense, that is still true (just on a different field). Now, I work out to stay healthy, fit, and vital while managing the challenges of running a company, navigating an overbooked calendar, and traveling every week (I flew about 140,000 miles last year – and have flown about 5 million miles on American).
This is about focusing on the right things so you can best measure progress.
Normalizing your habits and picking the right metrics isn't just a habit for the gym. It's a habit you should pick up in life. If you don't set the right measuring stick you'll always be unhappy or underperform.
Plan forward – but measure backward ... you have to make sure you're not so focused on the horizon that you don't track what you've accomplished.
Normalizing the result makes this easier and better.
In running, for example, it is the time it takes me to finish one mile, while never going above 170 heart beats per minute.
Meanwhile, in trading, we do this by comparing different opportunities based on a constant risk level (for example, the expected return for the next day of $1M, assuming a 1% maximum drawdown). It doesn't matter what market we trade, or how many trades the system makes ... we can make a fair comparison and get better insights about performance.
Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading - October 8th, 2017
Old people and their joints ... it's becoming an issue.
Here are some of the posts that caught my eye recently. Hope you find something interesting.
Lighter Links:
Trading Links:
Posted at 03:26 PM in Business, Current Affairs, Gadgets, Healthy Lifestyle, Ideas, Just for Fun, Market Commentary, Personal Development, Science, Trading, Trading Tools, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)
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