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Three Simple Steps For Breaking Stress & Commanding Instant Focus, Relaxation, and Productivity in Less Than 2 Minutes

Tuesday, April 26th, 2011
You will always have stress in your life.  The problem is that most people don’t know the most effective way for handling stress.  In a recent guest post, David Rendall explained why you need more stress, and how you can recharge your mind and body. 

For anyone who’s an entrepreneur, day trader, or high-performer in any activity, it’s vital to develop the skill of recognizing the reasons why you get stressed out, then put together a game-plan for handling that stress.  Those that are close to me know that I work great under pressure, but I let stress build up for so long that it tears my body down to the point of getting physically sick.

The 100/10/10 Exercise

As I come to the end of a 120 day “working marathon sprint”, I’ve not only made huge strides in my businesses, but I’ve learned a hell of a lot.  And I’d like to share one trick I’ve been practicing called the 100/10/10 exercise.

The 100/10/10 exercise is something I came up with as a quick, simple, and reliable way of breaking stress and tension.  This exercise is a great way to regain focus and increase your productivity exponentially.

Can you remember a time when you were so stressed out it felt like your head could explode?  Well, what do you do in those moments?  Yell at your kids, spouse, employees, or co-workers?  Next time that happens I invite you to use the 100/10/10 exercise…

Allow yourself to take about 100 seconds to take 10 deep breaths.  During each breath, think of one thing you’re grateful for.  This may sound kind of cheesy, but trust me it works!

Next time you’re stressed out, don’t lash out at the person sitting next to you.  Instead, just remember these 3 easy steps:

Step 1 – Sit down and allow yourself to be still for around 100 seconds (Anyone can take 1.66 minutes for themselves)

Step 2 – Take a very deep breath through your mouth while extending your belly so you can take in as much air as possible (repeat for 10 breaths) 

Step 3 – For each breath, think of one thing you’re thankful for.  You don’t have to force or obsess over something; just view an image of the thing you’re thankful for.

Has this worked for you?

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You Need More Stress

Friday, October 29th, 2010

This week’s guest post is from David Rendall, an expert in leadership and stress management.

Most of us think we have too much stress. We talk about being stressed out and everyone we know is stressed out as well. This problem seems to have an obvious solution. If we have too much stress, the solution is to reduce our stress by avoiding stressful events or eliminating stressful activities. It seems simple.

But it’s not that simple because we have an incomplete understanding of what stress really is. We use the term “stress” to refer exclusively to negative events. However, there are two kinds of stress, distress and eustress.

Distress is what we’re usually talking about when we talk about stress and . . .

- it is harmful
- it breaks us down
- it makes us weaker
- it drains our energy
Eustress is a different kind of stress and . . .
- it is helpful
- it builds us up
- it makes us stronger
- it renews our energy
This new understanding of stress points us to different solutions. If we are broken down because we have too much distress (bad stress), then we need to build ourselves back up by seeking out eustress (good stress), instead of trying to simply avoid all types of stress.
Additionally, there are four different kinds of eustress . . .
- Mental
- Physical
- Psychological/Emotional
- Spiritual
Too much stress, even eustress, in any of these areas can cause problems.
Day trading involves a lot of mental and psychological stress, but not very much physical stress. The exhaustion you sometimes feel after work might lead you to believe that you need to relax, watch TV or take a nap. But what you actually need is more stress in a different area. For example, you probably need more physical stress. You would feel better if you went for a walk, lifted weights, ran a few miles or did some yard work.
When distress drains your energy, you need eustress to recharge.
We’ll discuss all these ideas in more detail at the bootcamp in November. I’m looking forward to meeting you all then.

If you want to learn more, the video clip below offers another strategy for dealing with stress.

David Rendall is a management professor, speaker, trainer and entrepreneur, specializing in personal and interpersonal effectiveness. He has served people throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, India and the United Kingdom. You can find him at www.drendall.com and on Twitter @daverendall.

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Flipping Coins vs. Playing Casino – How to Tell If You Can Win at Day Trading

Tuesday, September 28th, 2010

Bare with me for a minute because I’m about to go off on a little rant…

I just heard a “trading guru” say that making money day trading the futures market is as easy as flipping a coin.  Seriously, this guy was just telling people that if they can flip a coin, they can make money in the e-mini markets.  Then he went on to place a trade on the S&P e-mini with a 2 point stop and “took profit” at one tick.  ”This is just like a video game”, he proudly exclaimed after he claimed his profit.

Is day trading as easy as flipping a coin?

There seems to be some big misconceptions with people looking at risk management.  Let’s just take a look at some elementary arithmetic and test a hypothetical risk management plan.

Win ratio = 50% (For the sake of argument, let’s just assume it’s as simple as flipping a coin to get a 50% win ratio)

Risk management = risk 2 points for 2 ticks profit (let’s be generous and assume he actually gets 2 ticks profit per trade)

After 100 trades, you’d have 50 winners and 50 losers.  Your total gross profit on the ES would be $1,250.  Your total amount of losses would be $5,000.  So, after 100 trades you would have lost $3,750!

Stop playing games and day trade like a casino!

Do you think Las Vegas was built on a strategy equal to flipping a coin?  Hell no!   All the beatiful lights and casinos were built from the casinos knowing ahead of time that they have a huge statistical edge over traders, and that the emotional behavior of the gamblers will keep the profits pouring in.  And the mindset is the exact same for all professional traders.

The money is made in anticipation of what the mass majority of traders is going to do next.  In other words, the more confirmation you have on a trade, the more you’ll pay for it.  For example, I entered at the absolute highest probability area at 1,139,50 on the sp500 emini.  You’ll notice that I got long as price was pulling back into the area, which is considered risky for some traders.  However, it’s actually the least risky area to look at this trade opportunity with around 1 pt of risk, have a potential winning ratio on the setup, and have an initial profit target over 3 points.  That’s a possible 3/1 reward-to-risk ratio.

Many traders had buy stops above resistance at 1,140.00 for a breakout trade.  That entry area could hold a higher winning probability, but it increases the risk to over 2X my entry, and decreases the profit potential by about 50%.  I’m not saying the “retail buyers entry” wasn’t a good trade.  The only “right decision” is the one that fits your personality and has a winning expectancy.

So run like hell the next time you hear someone say trading is like a video game or “easy as flipping a coin”!  Let’s go out as day trading professionals, define our edge like a casino, and trade in a way that fits our own personality.

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