Shift Your Focus To The Intent

All of us have come to the market with the single objective of making money. Some of us do but many of us don’t. The statistics say that less than 10% of people make money. The truth varies here. But it is undeniable that the focus of everyone in the market is on making money. Perhaps it is this very focus that is the problem? Could that be? In our intense desire to be profitable, we lose sight of other more important things?
Lets see if there is a different way of looking at things here. When we come to the come market is it not with an INTENT of making money? Otherwise why would we be here? Granted, there are many here who are more than happy to have a good time, to enjoy the thrill of the ride (particularly in trading) rather than make money. For them the money would be the icing on the cake! We are not talking about those persons. They get what they came for and what they truly deserved. I am talking here about the others who are genuinely intending to make money. When you meet anyone in the market they are always talking about wanting to make X by the time they are of a certain age or making enough money to cover their monthly expenses or buy some luxury or to secure their future etc. When you see from that perspective, you start to wonder as to when did the intent change into a goal?

Goals are destination points in the future- security in the future, buy something tangible in the future, make a certain amount by a certain time. You see, everything is a definition of some point of time in the future when it will be achieved or manifested. You didn’t come to the market with that as an idea did you, really? You came intending to make some money. You did somethings, spoke to some people, read somethings, acted upon your instincts etc. Some of this was successful, some were not. Then slowly, over time it started morphing into a desire for better and more desirable outcomes and finally changed to something more definitive, attached most probably to something specific, as a Goal for the future.

What if we shifted focus back to the Intent? An intention forces you to focus on what you are doing in the present, on how you need to be, on how you need to think and act in the present. Straight away, then, you see the difference! Intentions are all in the present as contrasted to goals which are always in the future! Actions are all happening in the present aren’t they? The future is an outcome of these actions. So by focusing on goals are we not moving our attention away from what needs to be done and getting into an expectational mode into the future? Small wonder then that unrealized goals are a legion!

I want to state here that I am not against goal-setting. It is just a different thing and merely setting goals to be achieved does not do the trick in the markets. We have to follow a process that will make things happen in the future. That means we need to be aware and mindful of what is happening in the present. Intention comes from within you while Goal is an image that you create in your mind. It is what is inside of you that can energize you to do what needs to be done now so that what you desire as an outcome (I.e. the goal) can manifest in the future? More, by focusing on the intent, you move away from the outcome of the actions. Thus you will be released from the two of the most dangerous problems that beset every trader and investor- the desire to be right and the desire not lose money. Intentions create processes on which we can concentrate and if we have designed the process well, the outcome shall take care of itself. Thus with the proper intentions in place and the right set of actions that emerge from those intentions, money will actually become a by-product of the process!

So the way to make money in the market would therefore be to fuse Intent with the Goal! Have a goal by all means but then start focusing on the Intent of achieving that goal. This is what will give power to the actions in the present, keep them energized enough, produce the consistency that is needed for the goal to become a reality into the future.