A few thoughts after last night's GaS webinar, on the question "How much would you be prepared to spend to learn how to make a million dollars?":
As I see it, the question of how many dollars you would spend can be quite simple to answer. However, most people spend plenty on courses and books and seminars without success.
The more important part of the question is actually how much effort are you prepared to put in to changing yourself so that you are capable of earning a million dollars - otherwise you would already be earning that sort of money! It's not money, or books, or seminars that achieve your goals: you yourself (with help when required ) have to be a deliberate causer of the new reality you want. How much effort are you prepared to put in to thinking differently? How hard are you going to try to forge new neural pathways that over-ride the subconscious, socially engineered defaults? How much time are you prepared to spend learning the technical skills? How hard and how long are you prepared to focus on the task? Are you prepared to veto distractions, including friends or family who are on a different path that you are no longer interested in pursuing? Are you driven by motives stronger than desire? Do you have a clear, un-conflicted vision of what you want?
These, I think, are also the questions that need to be answered if you want to be an expert trader.
My five year old daughter came to me eating a banana and said "Don't go to work anymore dad, we have enough money now". I asked her "How will we be able to buy bananas for you to eat?" . She replied "I will eat a little bit at a time and make this banana last ten years". It really made me question my own efforts to date. I'm not doing everything in my power to move toward my goals. I still spend as quick as I earn yet justify further spending on books and courses to make a million dollars.
The questions you ask Alan are easy to say YES to but if I was to analyse myself critically the answers for most, from my current position, would have to be NO.
Aaaah, Nathan I remember those days when I was stuffed from a hard week of turning my head inside out at work and being pulled in all directions by a couple of young daughters who seemed to give me a cold every 6 weeks so that even when I had time to think I couldn't think straight! Don't be too hard on yerself man: believe me, the old you of a year ago wouldn't recognise you.
Good point. I have definitely progressed from a year ago. I suppose the more I learn the more I realise how much I don't know.
Great thread Nathan and Alan...
I very much agree with both your observations. They have great truths in them that may not be immediately recognisable.
Yes... Alan... all those other components are necessary for mastery.
My point in asking the money question was simply one of motivation and then to have a discussion around whatever figure came up.
The second reason was to point out that in order to spend "that" amount of money, you must have an iron clad belief in yourself in order to improve your capabilities.
Self Efficacy is all about your belief in your capabilities... and in order to be a "deliberate causer" of new results... your self efficacy must be high.
If it isn't as high as it might be, then there are steps that can be taken to improve self efficacy.
Nathan... self efficacy is improved through incremental steps and its best improved through small incremental steps so that each increment is solidified in to new subconscious behaviour and mentation.
Because improvements in self efficacy are incremental, its difficult to see progress moving forward however, as Alan suggests, when you look backwards, progress is easy to see.
The other thing about Self Efficacy is that it is "context specific" as opposed to something like "self concept" or "self image".
Your sense of self as in "self concept" or "self image", is with you all the time and is carried forward into every situation.
However, "self efficacy" doesn't work like this.
Nathan, in terms of physiotherapy, your self efficacy would be high
In terms of profiting from short term price movements... your self efficacy is building from a non existent base 12 months ago and is improving all the time through incremental gains.
Because you spend as quick as you earn at present... doesn't mean that this is problematic... in fact your search for information is commendable.
When I started out, even though I was basically broke... I spent all my after food and shelter $$$'s on getting as much information as I could. I did this because I ultimately believed in my capacity to eventually be able to apply all that information in a meaningful way.
It's been 24 years since I started my journey, and all the money I spent then... in total its been about $500K... continues to have beneficial effects in expanding my lifestyle, knowledge base, sharing ability, freedom from constraints and a host of other positives that would have never entered my conscious mind previously.
So Nathan... when you turn your attention to gaining self efficacy in terms of spending... that will be the time when improvements can be made in that arena.
But for now, your attention is in different areas and your self efficacy is improving in those areas.
Self efficacy is not a blanket that covers everything... it is context specific.
So as Alan suggests... don't be too hard on yourself.
And yes... true learning means that the more you know, the more you realise how much you don't know.
And all the wisdom leaders of the past 2000 years have identified 3 critical aspects of the journey and environment towards mastery of anything.
1... A role model for the outcome you want
2... A dedicated program of learning for the outcome you want
3... Immersion in a Psycho/Social environment that supports you through to consolidation of the outcome you want.
Thank you Paul. That clarifies a lot. Very helpful and inspiring.
Yes, thanks for encapsulating these concepts so succinctly Paul. I also reflect on how some of my biggest learning experiences have been when I was totally "thrown in the deep end" in my career, well out of my comfort level. How would that fit in? My guess is that someone gauged that my self efficacy was higher than I thought it was at the time; or is that just another effective way of learning?
Interesting ideas here Alan...
We could get into all sorts of discussion threads on your experiences above.
One thread could be universal consciousness putting you into a position in order to offer some valuable learnings
Another thread is the belief your superiors had in putting you into positions they believed you'd eventually shine in
Another thread could be that it was a series of "accidents" that lead to you being "defaulted" into the situation you had to learn to swim in. We could also say that Einstein's observation of leadership... "In any given context, the person with the greatest behavioural flexibility will ultimately end up controlling that situation."
It's all part of the many different learning curves and ways of learning available to us.
