Achieving Peak Performance Through Mental Modeling

Key Takeaways
• One of the best ways to instill new habits, beliefs, and traits, is to model someone who has them.
We can do that in trading to make it easier to apply all of the psychological principles and
techniques.

• Modeling A World-Class Trader:

o Can be a real person or a mental construct. You can either choose a top notch trader
that you know, have read about or have heard of, or you can create a mental image of what
a world class trader would be like.

o Model their beliefs about trading. You’ve already learned all the beliefs you need to trade
at an optimal level throughout this training. You’ve learned beliefs about the nature of
trading, adversity, mistakes, emotions, entries, exits etc. Now you can simply take these
beliefs and attach them to the mental image of this trader that you’re modeling.

o Model their thinking habits and ability to deal with emotions. For example you would
model their great mental state control, and their ability to accept emotions with self-
awareness, and their positive grateful attitude, and you would mentally attach all this to their
image too.

o Model their body language and demeanor. What do they look like when they’re at the
trading screens? How confident do they look? What is their posture like? Imagine how they
would look after taking a string of losses, or when they have a big winner on and are letting
it run.

• When you’re trading, you want to pull up this image of this trader in your mind, and you want to
keep it in the background of your thinking throughout the day. Look at this trader as your role
model and draw inspiration and motivation from them. Think their thoughts, believe their beliefs,
and posture yourself in the way they would. Doing this will end up acting as the fuel or kick you
need to actually apply all the techniques you’ve learned in the heat of the battle.

o To really take this to the next level, you can also envision yourself as the trader you want
to be. When you do this, even if you feel like you’re just acting, you will start doing the
things that are consistent with being this great trader. Even if your results aren’t yet
consistent with the thought that you already are this great trader, it’s all about process. And
the more you trade with correct process, the more positive reinforcement you’ll receive in
the form of better results. Gradually, what used to be an act will become the natural way
you do things. We become what we think about. Think of yourself as already being that
great trader and your progress towards your goal will be greatly accelerated.

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