Success Secrets "Best Of the Year" Part 2

I have been posting on the “Top Success Techniques” that have worked for me in the past year. Part 1 of this post is here. Here are two more techniques that have contributed to my progress this year


Never giving up/Paying attention to all solutions that appear.

The human brain, the unconscious, the imagination, etc. are always working on solutions. The brain is constantly comparing our desired goals with feedback from our results to date on those goals. It then suggests new ideas, images, courses of action, etc. that may lead us toward better solutions. If we record and respect those ideas, they can help us discover still more paths which could take us to our goals, and which also “feed back” into our brain, which, in a “virtuous circle”, will produce still more ideas and solutions.

Some of my best personal results this last 12 months have emerged from combining and refining certain trading and investment results based on sets of previous results that were successful. I found that I could in some cases triple the results by combining already-successful methods in new ways. By paying attention to the ideas coming at me from both the “outside world” (the actual results) and the “inside world” (new ideas that continue to be generated from my brain), I am “bootstrapping” my results upward.

As long as one perseveres, reality will continue to produce new possibilities that lead us toward the solution to our problems…if we stay aware of new possibilities,, and if we make the effort o explore the possibilities that appear. Every avenue must be pursued, even unlikely ones. Another reason why “never giving up” is important, is because solutions are not singular, but “iterative”. Partial solutions lead to new ideas that then produce better partial solutions, that yield still better results…ad inifinitum. Interestingly, the nature of just what IS a solution, and even just what is the problem , may change. But none of this can be known in advance. We actually have to “run the simulation”, try the alternatives, reflect, and try again.

A corollary of this concept is that, since success become viewed as a process, there is actually less disappointment, and more serenity, since there is only an ongoing series of approximations toward higher and higher levels of success, rather than a “pass/fail” approach to our goals.


"Quantum Success " Techniques

This gem of a book, Quantum Success: The Astounding Science of Wealth and Happiness , by Sandra Anne Taylor is a collection of literally life-changing techniques to re-make your world. This book is one of the most powerful and profound books I have ever read. According to Taylor our world is an a state of quantum indeterminacy, which only resolves itself as the observer (us) begins to “create it” through observation. We, in effect, create the world we want to see.

Some of my favorite techniques from this book:

Releasing desperation…

Becoming aware of how often we can make choices that influence our lives…

Staying patient and calm…relying on persistent, focused action rather than “one-shot” plans or single-focus solutions…

Written “re-programming techniques” to “wipe out” thought patterns that are unproductive...

One of the points Taylor makes is that we can literally change our world hour by hour through conscious mindfulness of our mental state. Here is one small example:

I am an emotional person. I, unfortunately, let things “get to me”. Through Sandra Anne Taylor’s book, I came to the conclusion that my emotional nature was producing a “domino effect” by which I would get upset when something went “wrong”, and my reaction would impair my productivity in subsequent activities throughout the day, even though they were unrelated to the event that initially “set me off”. To paraphrase on of Colin Powell’s “rules” , “serenity is a success multiplier”. Why is this important? For me, I need a reason to generate internal calm going into a situation. That is, before the destabilizing event occurs. If I know I am consciously calming myself for the purpose of reducing chaos throughout the day, it helps me work through the “withdrawal” necessary to disengage from the unproductive, addictive, “stimulus” of high emotional levels.

In my life as a trader, this has helped me vastly reduce the number of impulsive trades that I might make, as I realize that the “reward” is not in the momentary excitement of a trade, but in the long-term outcome of a set of behaviors.

Another way of looking at Ms. Taylor’s work is that success can be viewed less as a “high” and more of a “low buzz” of intensity, as Doug Newburg puts it .

To be continued…

Techtags: Success,Productivity,Personal Development,Serenity