Stop, drop & think: How mindful thinking encourages better habits

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. 

Aristotle  

 

To get a habit to stick, it needs to become ingrained in your brain. So far in our series we have explored rewards, the environment, feedback, anchoring, and goals . In this blog, we will look at using rituals to further help implement a habit. 

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Habits, routines and rituals are often used interchangeably, but there are slight differences to each. A habit is often an automatic urge that is triggered by a cue ( for example your phone chimes, and you automatically check your social media account) It is done often, without thinking. This makes bad habits difficult to break, as they are ingrained in your subconscious. Similarly, it is hard to form good habits and have them stick long term. 

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A routine, by contrast, is a deliberate action. They can be easy to execute, for example making your bed, but they are not automatic or a part of your psyche. A routine needs work before becoming a habit. One way to do that is to work on it becoming a ritual. With a ritual, there is intention and awareness in your action. You are engaged on the experience of the task itself, and not just the result when it’s finished. 

 

By making something into a ritual, you give it meaning and focus. The action you are doing now has a sense of purpose. It can be as simple as mindful eating-slowly chewing your food and paying attention to the texture and flavour, without any phone or TV distractions, can turn your routine dinner into a ritual. 

So how can this knowledge be applied to your trading? 

 

By applying mindfulness to your trading routines, you can create rituals out of the routines, and help the actions become long term habits.  

 

For example, let’s say before you execute your first trade, you typically review your account balance, set your targets for the day, agree your risk limits on each trade. Take some time now to understand where you are in your trading discipline.

 

For every trade how do you rate your:

  • Pre Trade setup

  • Trade management

  • Post trade analysis

 

For every day how disciplined are you at your:

  • Start of day process

  • End of day process

  • End of month process

 

If you already follow these steps- well done, and keep it up! For those of us who sometimes lose our way, think about how to build stronger habits with rituals. To begin with, you could: 

  • Pour your first coffee of the day, when you are ready to do your start of day process.

  •  Start a trading journal where you document how you are feeling before you begin your trading day. 

  • Treat yourself to some end of day stretching as soon as your end of day process is complete.

  • Take 5 minutes of meditation every 2 hours of trading to reset your brain and get out of autopilot

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Rituals can be complex or simple, depending on the routine you want to become a habit. Try different ways of doing something until it feels comfortable for you. There is no right answer. The key thing is to give it intent and focus.

Make a plan NOW before you make your next trade.  Pick your biggest weakness and develop a ritual to help you improve. This, along with our other tips for habit forming, will help build a solid foundation to better trading habits. 

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Marise Gaughanhabits1 Comment