MINDSET & PSYCHOLOGY | Alfie Arnold

A STORY OF TWO GIRLS.

To illustrate the importance of mindset, let me tell you a story of two girls… The first girl is an African American child who was born into poverty to a single teenage mother. She experienced overwhelming hardship during her childhood. At the age of nine, she was raped by several family members and later became pregnant at the age of fourteen. She had no stable home and was told she would go nowhere in life.

The second girl was born into incredible wealth and fame. Her family was extremely successful in business and had grand plans for her to carry on building the family empire. She attended the most prestigious schools and was preened to take over a multi-billion dollar empire. Fast forward a few decades, and who do you think is in a more empowering situation? It’s easy to jump to conclusions. But without the right mindset, always remember that no amount of money, power, opportunity, or encouragement can ensure success.

The first girl had a dream, and she knew that despite her troubled childhood, she could rise above adversity and achieve it. She became an extremely successful businesswoman, actress, producer, and philanthropist. At one point, she was ranked the richest African American of the 20th century and was the world’s only black billionaire. She has touched the lives of billions of people around the world and has been hailed the most influential woman on the planet. You may have heard of this girl, her name is Oprah Winfrey.

On the other hand, the second girl was born with a silver spoon in her mouth and was presented with every opportunity from a young age. Although she could afford to flaunt her $4,000 handbags and luxury cars, she spent little time, money and effort on improving her mindset and focussing on her “inner game”. Consequently, she grew up taking her family’s wealth for granted and her life began to spiral out of control. You may remember her from that sex tape in 2003, or her numerous legal battles (which landed her in jail, sentenced to community service). Paris Hilton is an example of the modern phenomenon known as becoming a “celebutante”, the celebrity who rises to fame not so much because of their creativity, talent or work, but due to their inherited wealth and controversial lifestyle.

In addition to her tarnished reputation, Hilton has had ongoing financial issues. This is most certainly not designed to be an attack on Paris Hilton, or similar celebrities in her situation. In fact, there is a great number of studies and texts written on the burden of inheriting wealth. Most don’t realize that such a life comes with an extreme amount of challenges and hurdles as well. Just know that despite whatever happened (or didn’t happen) in your past, you have the ability to create a future to your exact specifications… and it starts with your state of mind.

Ask yourself why these two ladies ended up with such vastly different lives? Oprah had all of the odds against her, whilst Paris Hilton had every opportunity for success. Why did one prosper and the other fail-to-launch? Success leaves clues. One of the most empowering habits you can adopt is to study the lives of the greats. Connecting with their stories (the positives and negatives, trials and tribulations) may help you to draw similarities to your own story. It can inspire you to pursue a life of greatness, just like they did. Reading and learning about the stars can help propel you toward stardom. As you will inevitably discover, a common characteristic shared by every successful person in history is that they think differently from those who are not successful.

Someone who holds a clear vision for their future and a detailed action plan for achievement carries a distinct advantage over a person who lives day to day in the wishy-washy trance of routine.

By having a clear, defined image of your ideal world firmly embedded into your mind, you will begin to automatically stumble upon opportunities in the external environment that help you move towards that goal. On the other hand, if you have no target to aim for and no mission in life – you are living as a slave to your habits. In this case, your mind can revert to fundamental human instincts: Survival and reproduction. Whether it is forex trading, passive investing, property development, or option writing, you can set out to learn the best money making strategies in the world. The information is at your fingertips right this second. But if you are crippled with limiting beliefs, unresolved resentments, blame, low self-worth or shame, then these strategies will not work for you.

If they do (in the short term), you will likely squander most of your profits so that your level of prosperity returns to the level of your mindset. my goal is not only to teach you how to save, invest and trade. That would be an incomplete teaching. The purpose of the Accurateknowledge project is to ensure you have the correct mental framework to become a financial master. This means thinking like a master, talking like a master, walking like a master, profiting like a master, and believing in every fiber of your body that you are a financial master.

You were not born with your beliefs. They were formed, based on your environment and experiences. For example, say your family pet was a cute puppy. As you grew up, the pooch was loving and protective of you, and as a result, you attached endearing feelings towards dogs from that point forward. Imagine now, that your family owned an aggressive dog instead. Let’s say that dog attacked you one day. Events like this have the ability to create a subconscious link of fear and avoidance towards dogs. Sometimes, these fears stay with us throughout adult life. Sometimes, these fears are irrational. An individual with a deeply rooted fear of dogs can flinch at the sight of a harmless puppy. Highly emotional events or situations (particularly at a young age) have the ability to brand beliefs into your subconscious mind. Being attacked, bullied, family break-up, divorce, arguments, fighting, car crash, death in the family, sexual assault, stealing, jealousy, sibling rivalry, loss of job/security may all play a role in your unconscious thought patterns and corresponding belief systems. As well as highly emotional events, you may have also been indoctrinated with the beliefs of your elders. In fact, many of the beliefs that have the greatest impact on our lives were not gained by us consciously. Rather, they were instilled by others before we were even old enough to make informed decisions regarding the information. Often, we don’t even realize we hold these beliefs, let alone comprehend the implications of such beliefs. For this reason, the field of self-discovery is critical if you plan to become a true master in any field. It is wise to take list of everything you believe in. Ask these questions: What do I believe about health, wealth, wisdom, business, relationships, social leadership, and spirituality? What, specifically, do these beliefs give me? (Hope, faith, companionship, vitality) What, specifically, do these beliefs take away from me? (Freedom, time, money, independence, personal power) How, when and where did this belief come about? Was it due to a person or event? Write out as much detail as you can. Have I cleared the charge of highly emotional events by seeing the blessings, benefits and divine order in play? Have I cleared the infatuation and subordination to the people (often parents) who installed this belief into me? How did they initially stumble upon the belief? Was it a compensation of unresolved pain, fear, guilt or shame? Or are they passing it down from above? If they’re passing down the belief, who told them it was true? And who told them? And who told them? Trace it back to the source. Do you wish to retain this belief, or replace it with a more empowering alternative? Your beliefs are your choice. You need not uphold a tradition for the sake of upholding a tradition. Give yourself permission to spread your wings and carve your own path. When the voice on the inside becomes louder and clearer than all of the voices, traditions and expectations on the outside, you will begin to master your life.

BELIEFS ABOUT LIFE

Your beliefs shape the way you experience life. As your beliefs accumulate, you will live in a way that reflects what you have learned to believe. If you believe you’re a “battler”, you will tend to battle your way through life. If you believe you’re a “master” in the making, you will tend to attract people, places, and scenarios that lead toward mastery. Consider how different your life would be if you had been born into another culture, religion, or political system. One that is the polar opposite to the one you were born into. It might be hard to imagine, but what you would have learned to believe about the nature of existence may not bear any resemblance to what you currently believe in today. Yet, in that situation, would you not hold onto those other beliefs with the same degree of certainty as you do your current beliefs? This is a deep philosophical question that can bring about a feeling of love toward those with opposing values and opinions.

Let’s use intimate relationships as an example. Our beliefs about intimate relationships are often a direct reflection of the pains and pleasures we perceived in our past relationships. Perhaps it was observing your parents relationship. Perhaps it was experiencing your own. After a painful breakup, how many times have you heard someone say “I’m never getting into a relationship again!”. Someone with unresolved past pains about relationships will tend to carry these feelings (and beliefs) into their new relationships. How you close one door determines how you open the next. Common relational traits of those with unresolved relational pains include sabotaging the relationship if it gets too “close” and bouncing around from partner to partner, trying to avoid the pain that they once experienced. Is this mastery? We think not.

Avoiding pain and seeking pleasure is a function of the animal mind. It takes personal mastery to transcend these lower-minded oscillations and see the beauty of actuality – which is an equal balance of positives, negatives, pains and pleasures. Until you clear the pains of your past, you will naturally tend to attract more of the same kind of events into your life. One of the most empowering processes you can do is to sit down with a pen and paper and ask yourself, “What were all the benefits of this painful event happening”. Answer the question 100 times if you must, and stop only when you can truthfully say thank you. “True forgiveness is when you can say, thank you for that experience” – Oprah Winfrey Your actions and decisions are driven by the beliefs that you have accumulated over time. Some of them can be extremely empowering, and others very limiting. It is important to be able to identify the difference between these two, and eliminate any beliefs that are detrimental to your success both as a trader, and as a person.

BELIEFS ABOUT MONEY

Have you always struggled to make and keep money? Or do find it easy to attract and retain cash on a regular basis? What is it that allows some people to make more money than they will ever need in a lifetime, while others seem to blow every dollar they make? Is it because some people have better jobs, or that they have a higher income, or that they just get lucky? Of course not. If that were the truth, there would be far more financially independent people in the world. During his professional boxing career, Mike Tyson made over $300 million US dollars, yet in 2003 he declared bankruptcy. If Tyson had blown $200 million on lifestyle and kept just $100 million, invested it at 10% per annum – he’d generate $10 million per year in interest. That’s about $200,000 per week, pure passive. Yet, somehow, he managed to spend it all. It’s not enough to be in the right place at the right time. T. Harv Eker, CEO of Peak Potentials Training, says that you have to be the right person, in the right place at the right time. Your character, your thinking and your beliefs about money are a critical part of what determines the level of your financial success. The vast majority of people simply do not have the internal capacity to create and hold on to large amounts of money. We’ve all heard of lottery winners who spend their fortunes in a very short period of time, only to end up in the same miserable situation that they were in before they won! Why does that happen? An individuals “financial blueprint” refers to their internal wealth thermostat. If your internal wealth thermostat is set to $10,000 it doesn’t matter if you make $100K or $1M or $300M – your wealth will always fall to $10,000 to meet your thermostat. Lottery winners who have low financial thermostats will tend to squander their new found wealth by giving free handouts to family and friends, or by purchasing too many unnecessary and unsustainable liabilities. Your real world wealth will always rise or fall to meet your internal wealth thermostat.

Many people are taught a certain threshold for money by their parents, family, friends and associates. I know people who (subconsciously) believe that it’s “okay” to have a certain amount of income and savings, but beyond that amount would be “greedy” or “unnecessary”. Kids who see their parents “hating” on successful and wealthy people will often grow up with those memories lodged deeply into their subconscious minds. If they look up to their parents or crave attention, love and acceptance – they will stumble upon a violent conflict of interest if they decide to grow wealth. I need parental approval > My parents hate the wealthy > I cannot become wealthy If you need the approval more than the wealth, you’ll restrict your own wealth. If you fail to realize why you’re sabotaging your own wealth, you will become extremely frustrated. It is wise to break through any infatuations (and resentments) you hold against your own parents. Holding onto an infatuation or resentment for others will rule your life and dim your lights. You’ll seek approval from those you look up to and inject their values and beliefs into your existence. You’ll seek revenge or retribution from those you look down on and project your values and beliefs onto their existence. Both pull you away from your own purpose. A balanced perspective with love and grace for others allows you to focus your attention and organize your actions toward a meaningful outcome of your own specific design.

Limiting beliefs like this exist (in abundance) when talking about money and trading. Such limiting beliefs can literally cap your ability to become a profitable investor and trader. Here are some common limiting beliefs we’ve come across in new traders: “I probably won’t make money, but I’ll give it a try” “I probably wouldn’t be able to trade full time” “Money doesn’t grow on trees” “What’s too good to be true usually is” “Only institutions make money from trading, not ordinary people like me” “I could lose everything if this doesn’t work out, it’s very risky” “If I’m not good at this, it may not be for me” What you focus on is what you will end up with. If you don’t think you will make money, you won’t! If you don’t believe you will be good at trading, you won’t be! If you want to carry out an experiment to test the power of limiting beliefs, go to the bank and withdraw $100 in 5 dollar notes. Take your $5 notes, stand on a busy thoroughfare during peak hour and offer the passersby a free 5 dollar note. You might be amazed to find out how many people see you, see the 5 dollar bill, yet still look away and continue walking. Many years ago a group of psychologists conducted this very experiment to see how people reacted when offered “free money”. Less than 5% of the people who walked by took up the offer. They concluded that limiting beliefs about money, the accumulation of money, and the concept of “easy money” were primarily responsible for the amazing results.

Limiting beliefs may arise from ideas and phrases that were ingrained deep into your subconscious from a young age. Beliefs such as: “To make money you need to work hard” “Money doesn’t grow on trees” “We don’t get given money in this family” “Nothing ever comes to us without a hidden catch. Avoid opportunities that are different.” “Money just doesn’t come easily” “I shouldn’t talk to strangers” Catch phrases like this are frequently used by middle-class parents all over the world, so is it any wonder that hardly anyone takes “free money”? For the 95% who “missed out” on the $5, I wonder if they’ll even think of that scenario again? The strange man waving money at them in the subway. Would they ever realize that their limiting beliefs cost them the ability to make $5? Perhaps more importantly, would they ever realize the incredible income opportunities that they are blinded to by limiting beliefs? Would they carry on throughout life holding onto these limiting beliefs? Would they pass them onto their children down the track? How is that going to affect the lives of their children? In this modern day of global connectivity, money is literally all around you right this second. It’s waving at you. Plug in the right tools, procedures, technologies, philosophies and beliefs – and you can pull more money out of the system than what you could ever spend.

EMPOWERING BELIEFS

Installing a new belief is like receiving an organ transplant. It can take a while for your body to accept the new organ, and there’s always a risk of internal rejection. To override a limiting belief, we suggest the following 5 step process: Identification Replacement Internal Reinforcement External Reinforcement Self-Actualization.

Step 1: Identification The first step to overriding or replacing a limiting belief is to identify exactly what the limiting belief is. Let’s use the example of limiting financial beliefs. Ask yourself: What do I believe about money that is holding me back? What do I believe about myself that is holding me back? What guilt or shame do I have about past events? What was I told about money growing up? What am I told about money now by my boss, partner, parents and peers? If you cannot identify it, you cannot replace it. For the sake of this example, let’s say you discover the limiting belief: “Rich people are greedy and self-centered”.

Step 2: Replacement The next step is to choose a more empowering belief. Start with your current (limiting) belief of “rich people are greedy and self-centered”, and then debunk it in your own mind via objective reasoning and wise self-questioning. Ask yourself: Who is rich, giving and dedicated to helping others? List 100, 200, 300+ individuals to debunk the (false/limiting) belief in your mind, then set a new belief such as, “Becoming rich allows you to give more and help more.” Research the lives of wealthy individuals who built an empowering legacy for humanity. “Get to know them” on a more intimate level by reading their biographies and autobiographies. The more you learn about the greats, the more you’ll realize you have what they have.

Step 3: Internal Reinforcement Reinforce new beliefs internally by reciting wise, grounded and balanced affirmations daily. Napoleon Hill referred to this process as autosuggestion. Say 10 times in a row, morning, noon and night: Saving, investing, trading, managing my money and building a vast fortune will allow me to make a massive difference on earth. The more I make, the more I can give. The wealthier I become, the greater acts of service I can provide to others. My wealth is growing each and every day.

Step 4: External Reinforcement Get around people who encourage your new and empowering beliefs. Go to seminars, attend personal development events, join meet-up groups in your city or create your own mastermind culture. Encourage and empower your friends and family members by teaching them your newfound wisdom. One of the greatest ways to learn is to teach. Play audiobooks each day and listen to the greats while you walk, exercise, drive and commute. Let giants into your life so you can stand on their shoulders and lead from the top. We suggest a subscription from Audible. Start removing yourself from toxic environments that are not conducive to your success. If your social network is keeping you tied down, slowly start drifting away. Fill your time and space with empowered, enlightened souls with a great vision on a great mission.

Step 5: Self-Actualization Soon enough, your new and empowering belief will become self-evident. At this point, you have owned and integrated the belief into your life. You cannot “unbelieve” now. The next step is to find your new limiting belief or illusion that you must transcend. Repeat steps 1-5. You could find it difficult to shift some beliefs at first. Like any other skill, it takes practice. Don’t set yourself up for failure by trying to reprogram your entire life in one day. Don’t worry too much about straying from social norms. Whenever you want to push beyond average results, you’ll find yourself adopting uncommon beliefs. Wealthy people do not hold the same financial beliefs as the poor and middle class. Happy people do not have the same beliefs and perceptions as the depressed. Healthy people do not have the same diet and exercise beliefs as the sickly and overweight. The more exceptional you want to be, the more you’ll have to push beyond the limitations of social conditioning. Exceptional results require exceptional beliefs.

PERSISTENCE

Being a master of persistence means doing what you love and enduring both pains and pleasures on the way. The master persists through any degree of challenge and struggle. The masses give up on the smell of a hard time. The road ahead of you is not easy. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it.

If your reason for wanting to achieve success is fluffy, what’s going to push you to keep going when it all gets too hard? Let us be straight up about it… without a big enough reason for success, you will not have what it takes to persist in the face of adversity. A nice car and fancy watch is not a big enough reason. To pay off your credit card is not a big enough reason. To simply quit a job that you’re not grateful for is not a big enough reason. The most inspired callings to success will come from the soul. A soul guided purpose. These desires, when stacked together will provide you with unlimited energy, motivation, and enthusiasm to act. Your most inspired callings will transcend the pursuit of pleasure and “feeling good” – for nothing of the senses will ever satisfy the soul.

Find your reason, find your purpose, and use the tools and vehicles at your fingertips to create the success you deserve. When the why is big enough, the how takes care of itself. I have no doubt that if it were not for my absolute persistence in becoming a successful trader, I would not be where I am today, and you would not be reading these very words. “If you want to succeed as badly as you want to breathe, then you will be successful” If your young daughter was taking longer than usual to walk, would you simply give up on teaching her? Of course not! Why? Because you are determined that it is necessary for that child to learn how to walk. There is never any doubt in your mind that she will succeed. You just keep trying until she walks. This is the same level of certainty you must carry into your business endeavors. There is no “cut off” in the pursuit of mastery. There is no “time limit” in the pursuit of mastery. To master your life, you must keep persisting UNTIL you reach the goal. “I’ll try this for X weeks and if I don’t receive Y result, then I’ll move on” – is the language of an insecure and weakened ego, unwilling to overcome challenge in the pursuit of success. People with that attitude never make it far in life.

SOCIAL INFLUENCE

This brings us to the impact of social influence. The way in which you interpret, process and respond to the opinions of your friends and family will play an enormous role in your success (or lack of success). Firstly, you must understand that some (if not most) members of your inner circle currently hold a hidden agenda for you to stay where you are. In other words, they don’t want you to succeed as much as they pretend they do. If you verbally ask them, “Do you want me to succeed?”, of course, they’ll say yes! At this point in human and social evolution, it is a function of social etiquette and politeness to wish well upon others. But have you ever considered what your success means for them? Close friends and siblings, in particular, were likely brought up in similar environments and presented with similar opportunities to you. If you soar into success, then what does that mean for them? It means they’re inferior. It means they’re smaller, dumber, slower, weaker, less motivated and less successful than you. Of course, these labels may not be objectively true – but our fragile human emotions can certainly make them feel true. If you’ve ever lived alongside someone who soared toward phenomenal fame and fortune from a similar starting point, you’ll know exactly how it feels. It highlights your own shortcomings and forces them into your conscious awareness. Your amygdala (animal brain) comes online and may even cause you to perceive the success of a close friend as a direct attack at your survival and reproduction capabilities. After all, the peacock with the biggest, brightest tail procures the best mate. This animalistic, competitive nature can then lead to a fight or flight response: Fight the friend by attacking their success, or take flight and leave the relationship. The poppy that rises taller than the others not only receives the most sun, but can also cast a shadow onto the shorter poppies. As a function of self-preservation, short poppies like cutting down tall poppies. If you are to achieve success, you must be aware of these human tendancies, and you must have a plan in place for exactly how you’re going to handle a challenging social situation. Secondly, trading is not a social norm. When people are presented with ideas that challenge their pre-programmed thoughts, they often feel negatively towards them. Be aware that (sooner or later) you will face a “dream-killer”. Remember that anyone who has not had the correct professional training in probability modeling, psychology, pattern recognition, strategy implementation and risk management is not in a position to be giving you advice, and if they feel compelled to do so, you should not listen to them. Unwelcome advice regarding trading of any nature is often negative. It can stem from a bad personal experience and/or tall poppy syndrome.

“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly.” – Albert Einstein

Throughout my personal learning journey, I faced negative criticism almost every day. When I was working at the factory, my boss told me that trading was far too risky, and even offered to help me find a suitable term deposit for my capital to earn a safe 4% per annum. I explained to him how I was already averaging 4% per month – but my energy was wasted, as he chuckled in disbelief. I soon learned to “fly under the radar”, and stopped sharing my progress with anyone who was negative or sarcastic towards my dreams. The day came when it was starting to cost me too much to go to work, so I happily handed in my resignation and became a full-time trader. To my dismay, I have found that to this day, it doesn’t necessarily matter how much I make, or for how long I’ve been making it – I am still plagued by negativity and disbelief when I discuss my profession amongst mediocre minds. If you are dedicated to becoming a trader, you must have a resilient character and be strong enough to put tall poppy cutters in their place. The challenge from some people will not end, even after you have proven yourself. On the contrary, if you surround yourself with inspired, successful people and traders alike, you will benefit in a number of ways. You will have people in your network who provide social proof that success is attainable. This can help motivate you to persist until you succeed. Also, when you’re around people for long enough, you begin to model their behavior. Therefore, isn’t it much wiser to associate with those who express empowering characteristics rather than those who could be detrimental to your success? A famous anecdote in personal development is that you can work out someone’s annual income within 10% accuracy by finding out the annual income of their 5 closest friends and averaging them out. While we certainly can’t prove this objectively, we have very loosely confirmed that some correlation surely exists. Therefore, if you want to increase your income, make friends with people who earn more than you! We encourage you to get around as many successful, supportive and empowering people as you can. If you make just one new friend who is successful, they could expose you to opportunities and ideas to which the average person would not have access. If you make 5 new successful friends, and start eliminating mediocre influences from your life, you will have no choice but to rise up toward success. Thirdly, have a game plan. If you are more susceptible to the opinions of others, it may be wise to create a contingency ahead of time. We have now seen hundreds of cases where accurateknowledge students have simply given up because they’ve been ill-prepared to deal with ongoing challenges from friends or family. Plan for every rejection or challenge ahead of time, that way when it arises, you can act methodically, rather than react emotionally

THOUGHTS

Your thoughts will retain a balance of polarity and rhythm.

The polarity of thoughts are defined by opposing extremes, often referred to as “positive thinking” and “negative thinking”.
The rhythm of thoughts is the perpetual oscillation between these poles (positive to negative, back to positive), often responsible for mood swings.

The ancient masters spoke of polarity and rhythm in depth. To understand these principles is the first step to understanding the nature of existence, including the nature of the mental plane, where your thoughts “reside”.

A few essential principles:

You won’t escape rhythm. It is foolish and self-defeating to falsely assume you’ll always be one sided. No-one is purely a “positive thinker”, for it violates the laws of the universe.
The swing to the left is the measure of the swing to the right. The more positive and elated you become during the “good” times, the more negative and depressed you will become during the “bad” times. The more volatile the rhythm of thoughts, the less mastery of mind the individual has achieved. Extreme highs are balanced by extreme lows. This manic/depressive oscillation is normal, but can spiral out of control if the individual assumes that he should always be happy, positive, euphoric or manic.
Monopole addiction. The expectation of one-sidedness (permanent happy, positive, mania, euphoria, success) is also known as an addiction to the monopole (one pole). Ironically, it is this very addiction that creates the symptoms of bi-polar disorder (extreme oscillations between the poles).
Negative thoughts can serve you to the same degree as positive thoughts. Without negative thinking of “what could go wrong”, we wouldn’t risk manage, we wouldn’t wear seatbelts, we wouldn’t buy insurances and perhaps we wouldn’t even waste time looking out for traffic before crossing a road. Negativity is there to serve you. Don’t judge it because some “guru” told you to always be positive. If he or she claims to always be positive, they are dishonest.

The source of negative self-talk is more predictable than what most realize. When you fully understand and embrace the laws of polarity and rhythm, you will come to understand that negative self-talk is but an essential balancing mechanism to positive fantasies or delusions that we may have attached to.

Try this:

Become present, calm and quiet.
Clear your mind of distractions and sit silently.
Speak out loud a positive lie, such as, “Next week I will become a multi-billionaire who everyone adores and admires. I will be happy 100% of the time for the rest of my life. I will always be positive, energetic, enthused and motivated. Everything will come to me easily, without any struggle or challenge. Next week I will buy a $10 million mansion and 6 of my dream cars”.
Tune in closely and pay attention to the voice that pops up. “Whatever, you won’t do that. You can’t do that. That’s not true.”
If you engaged in the positive fantasy, you will have had a voice inside that balanced the equation. Sometimes that voice is quiet, sometimes that voice is loud. If you heard no voice, try posting the positive lie on Facebook for all your friends, family and co-workers to see. Before clicking “Post”, take note of any uncomfortable/negative voices that arise. Undercooked, unplanned positive fantasies and lies are the source of negative self-talk. They are there to highlight you to a fantasy delusion or expectation that you may hold as a conscious or unconscious expectation.
The more conscious you are of the fantasy (expressive voice, telling others), the more unconscious the negative self-talk. (Outer pride that drives an inner fear of being found out for who you really are and what you really think).
The more unconscious you are of the fantasy (deeply rooted expectations), the more conscious (and loud) the negative voice in the head. This iteration is the hardest to break through, because the source of your negative self-talk is buried within your unconscious awareness. You think you’re negative, based on the voice that keeps popping up. But in fact, your positive fantasies and delusions are driving that negative self-talk.
The internal split between your conscious and unconscious awareness gives rise to judgements and labels. When both your conscious (thesis) and unconscious (anti-thesis) are integrated (synthesis), your awareness expands, and you may experience a new quantum leap of consciousness. This is the path to personal mastery.

Likewise, if you do the above exercise in reverse, you can bring about automatic positive self-talk to balance your awareness in the opposite direction.

Automatic self-talk is the balancing mechanism to an underlying imbalance. When you speak truest truth to yourself, your mind quietens down. “I am a human being who experiences polarity and rhythm in my life and in my mind. Like all humans, I feel (internally) and display (externally) both positive and negative traits, dreams and aspirations. Sometimes I’m confident. Sometimes I’m fearful. Sometimes I’m positive. Sometimes I’m negative.” When you speak to yourself like this and acknowledge the necessity of both sides, your inner voice is at peace with the truth. You may transcend negative self-talk in this way.

If a recurring internal voice keeps telling you that you cannot do something, dig deeper. Do you have an unconscious fantasy that you’re about to embark on something that is indeed much harder than you realize? Is your plan undercooked? Do you have risk management in place? Is it really that important to you or are you just escaping from something to avoid pain? Have you thought of every contingency? In the presence of an intricate plan, it is unlikely you will suffer from such negative self-talk.

“Nothing is either good or bad, but thinking makes it so” – Shakespeare

In my 1 on 1 coaching sessions, I often meet clients who are holding onto wild expectations of fame and fortune, glitz and glamor. They have become infatuated with riches and success, to the point where they are completely blinded to the challenges, drawbacks, hurdles, commitment and work that is truly required. In this state of mental imbalance, it is a natural response of the human mind to bring on negative self-talk. This negative self-talk is there to serve you, not to hinder you. Many of these clients assume I will prescribe some kind of motivational pep-talk or morning ritual that will allow them to fight off this negative self-talk. Rather, the first thing I ask them is, “What are your fantasies, delusions, and expectations?”. I know by universal law that the mind is balanced. If polarized negativity is surfacing via a voice in the head, I know that polarized positivity (fantasy) is present (but often buried). By bringing these fantasies to the surface, we can work through them by breaking infatuations, balancing perceptions and putting in place a grand master plan for the achievement of their most inspiring goals. When a balanced perspective is achieved, realistic expectations are established and a grand master plan is put in place – the mind stops bringing on negative self-talk.

Learn to master your thoughts, or else your thoughts will master you.

LANGUAGE

Learn to watch your mouth.

Words, phrases and language patterns have the ability to arouse all kinds of emotions and feelings.

Constantly talking about how much money you’ve spent, how broke you are and how expensive everything is will have an adverse affect on your mindset, vibration, and manifestation capabilities.

A close friend of mine expresses her apparent desire to become financially independent. Yet, in hanging out for a few hours, I can see that she doesn’t truly believe she is destined for success. Some of her habits include:

Focus on job promotion and development (despite claiming to want to quit her job and trade full time)
Constant talking about how her bills and expenses are “out of control” (despite claiming to be a financial master in the making)
Always looking at prices instead of focussing on what she would love to order from a restaurant menu (yet claiming that she does what she wants)
Always scrimping and trimming coupons to save money instead of reading and developing the awareness of making more (vibrating on scarcity)
Confusion about where her money goes (it all seems to slip through her hands at every paycheck)
Regular use of language such as “too much, too expensive, can’t afford that” etc.

Pay close attention to the language you use to describe money. Your words are a reflection of your feelings. Your feelings are a reflection of your vibration. Your vibration is an indication of what you will attract and repel into your time and space. This doesn’t mean blow money you don’t have. It means be tactful and deliberate with what you think, say and feel about money.

In trading, the language you use is also very important.

When I first started teaching a good friend of mine how to trade, I noticed that he had a tendency to blame the markets for any losing trades. He would use phrases like, “I can’t seem to win this week” and “I got bombed out of a trade this morning”. Both of which imply that the market had some kind of set against him, and neither of which lead into an empowering action step. By saying these things, he was reinforcing a fallacy to himself, and stirring up disempowering, unusable feelings toward the market and his strategies. Curving your bad language and replacing disempowering phrases with more powerful, usable and objective wording can have a direct impact on your confidence in the market.

PHYSIOLOGY

Body motion is intrinsically connected to mental e-motion.

Physiology in trading refers to physical traits such as stance, posture, breathing and facial expression.

At least some of your mental state depends on how you move your body. To prove this to yourself, next time you are experiencing an undesired emotional reaction – do the following:

Sit or stand in a quiet space.
Ensure your spine is straight and your body is symmetrical (don’t cross arms, fingers, legs etc.)
Pretend that an invisible string is gently pulling your forehead directly upwards.
Close your eyes lightly, gently smile, and focus on your breath.
Take a deep, slow breath in through your nose that lasts 7 seconds.
Hold a full set of lungs for 7 seconds
Slowly exhale through your mouth for 7 seconds
Hold an empty set of lungs for 7 seconds
Repeat 7 times
The whole process should only take 4-5 minutes
Take note of how your emotional state is altered.

In trading, if you sit down at your desk while you’re miserable, hunched over the keyboard, holding your head in your palm, taking shallow breaths while fighting against heavy eyelids, it may affect your ability to take calculated risks and seek viable opportunities.

On the contrary, if you’re charged, sitting up straight, taking deep breaths with a confident and cunning look in your eye, your mental processing capabilities can be shifted into an entirely new gear.

An empowering physiology leads to an empowering frame of mind, which leads to vastly different results compared to a victim mentality expressing limp and lame physiology. True consistency means approaching the market the same way, every time. If you need to devise a routine to wake you up and get you into the mood, by all means, do it.

Some traders meditate for 15 minutes before their session begins so they are in the right frame of mind to trade in the zone. I personally listen to an empowering audio track if I feel the need to be perked up before trading.

Sit up straight. Ensure you are comfortable and your workstation is the correct height.
Take deep slow breaths instead of short shallow breaths. This promotes oxygen flow to the brain, awakens you, calms the nerves, and provides clarity in your thought processes.
Smile. Have fun and embrace the power of being able to make money in a very agreeable way.

If you are prone to maintaining poor physiology, make sure to identify and rectify the situation as soon as possible. Poor physiology can cause a poor mental state, and a poor mental state can cause poor physiology. Sometimes you don’t know if your bad mood is causing your poor posture, or if your poor posture is causing your bad mood. Therefore it’s important to eliminate any physiological risk factors by ensuring you’re in a position that promotes confidence and awareness.