In the first part of this exercise series, I talked about mindset and action.
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.
Watch the video, it is only 90 seconds.
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 an 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.
Here is a different look that shows effort based on my maximum heart rate. It is from an app called Heart Analyzer.
Recognizing what this feels like is 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.
I currently use an Apple watch with the HeartWatch app to measure heart rate during the day. The Oura Ring is what I use to measure sleep and readiness.
These are useful tools.
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.
Measuring Normalized Behavior – Stop Worrying and Love The Pain
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. In the past, for me, 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.
In my last post on mindset and action, I talked about the habit of conditioning yourself to take the next best step.
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 heartbeats 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 2% 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.
Hope that helps.
Posted at 06:54 PM in Business, Current Affairs, Healthy Lifestyle, Ideas, Market Commentary, Personal Development, Science, Trading, Trading Tools | Permalink | Comments (0)
Reblog (0)