The old days
I remember getting poked when I submitted my first business goals and plans to my Steering Group many years back.
During my tour of duty in Shanghai, when I became part of the Steering Group during my final years there, I had fun returning the favour back to the team leaders so eager to please and impress us - them with their bombastic goals together with shock and awe business plans...
It's so interesting to see the progress and adjustments (or none) these team leaders made during our quarterly reviews.
Some "get it" very quickly. Some take more time. Some will never "get it".
And that's how some names get into the "High Potentials" file, some into the "Potentials" files, and if your name is not in any file, it means you are "condemned"....
Losing weight
If you want to lose weight, there's basically 3 ways you can do it:
Eat right - diet to reduce calorie intake way.
Exercise - burn more calories way.
Eat right and exercise - why choose when you can do both?
A goal to lose 5 kg in 12 months with a corresponding plan using any one of the 3 processes is believable.
Why?
It's because it's controllable by us. To diet or to exercise is what we can control.
The discipline to follow through with our plans is not influenced by the
weather, geopolitics, or anything external with the exception of illness
or accident.
Questionable goal settings
Now pause and think about the X amount in Y years financial goal settings you may have done up. Especially when they involve investing
or trading in the markets.
Do you see the fly in the ointment here?
If you get it, don't have to read further. You very the good! One tiny pin poke and you see blood immediately!
Holding your hand
For those that need more time, let me ask you some verification questions like what we used to do in the Steering Group:
Can you control the markets?
Is your position so large that when you sell or buy, you can influence the market prices?
If both your answers are "No" - you can neither control nor influence the markets - pray tell how you will achieve your goals then?
Depending on pure dumb luck?
Or is your goal setting purely an exercise in randomness?
People smarter than you
If you want to be more successful in your investing and trading journey, isn't it better to focus on what we can control?
Like in our weight loss example?
Improve your buying process - a merchandise well bought is a merchandise well sold.
Improve your selling process - no selling means you are a "stamp collector".
Improve both your buying and selling processes - duh?
LP the butterfly guy is the only one I've read that talk about the buying and selling processes in his blog posts. I guess his engineering background helps!
If in your day job you are constantly talking about systems and processes, and you never apply it to your own investing/trading journey....
See that wall over there?
Yes, you can go bang your head against it.
LOL!
Singapore Man of Leisure (welcome to my blog; just google it!)
