Introduction To Renewal: Where Are You Going?

Each of us is on a journey called life.  This book is about finding your map.

Without a coherent life map, there can be no effective trading maps.  It is the life map that provides us with the resources necessary for open-mindedness, insight, and resilience.  Our trading psychology can be no better than our life psychology.

Most of us, at points in time, have stepped back and thought about the meaning and purpose of life.  During those moments of reflection, we suspend daily routines and tap into a larger reality: a sense of what life can be.

Too soon, however, we return to days and weeks saturated by projects, to-do lists, career demands, markets, and family obligations and we lose that larger perspective.  We fail to develop our map to the life that could be.  And so we wander in our narrow places, exiled from life's broader possibilities. 

Much of applied psychology boils down to a single insight:  Life problems occur when we become trapped in repetitive patterns of thought, feeling, and behavior.  We may be consciously aware of these patterns, yet they stubbornly stay with us:  the same conflicts with spouses; the same harsh, self-critical thoughts; the same fears and frustrations; the same trading mistakes; the same attachments and addictions to things that bring no lasting fulfillment.  

Most of us don't have dozens of problems in life, though it sometimes feels that way.  We have one overarching problem with multiple manifestations, and that problem boils down to an impairment of free will.  When our patterns control us, we are no longer fully self-determining.  Pushed to and fro by life's winds and waves, we craft no coherent journey and reach no meaningful destination.  Much of psychology--and especially the world's great spiritual traditions--are gateways to becoming more conscious, more aware, more intentional.  

This book is about cultivating your intentionality:  your capacity for free will.  We cannot succeed in life--or in financial markets--if our capacity for free choice is repeatedly hijacked by moment-to-moment ego desires and demands.  When we expand our will, the result is a renewal of life.  When that expansion becomes part of our lifestyle, the result is a radical renewal.

The irony is that each of us already has a path to meaningful life renewal--some of us through artistry, some through career achievement, some through family and relationships, some through service, many through combinations of these.  Our path is there; we recognize it during those moments of clarity when we step back from routine.  We feel that path when we are immersed in what we do well--what matters to us--and when we operate in "the zone".  The challenge is keeping that path visible and staying our course.

The problem is not that we lack free will.  The problem is that we operate with a partial will.

When repetitive patterns take the form of problems--obsessive thoughts, periodic temper outbursts, anxious moods, self-doubts, etc.--we can perceive them clearly.  When life itself becomes a repetitive pattern--when we are consumed by routine--we are all too likely to lose our larger life perspective.  Fish cannot understand water: it is all around, all the time.  So it is with our routines:  once we're immersed in them, we perceive little else and no longer clearly perceive our meaningful life path.  

Traditional psychology offers powerful tools for changing  maladaptive patterns:  behavioral methods, cognitive techniques, interpersonal modalities, psychodynamic approaches, and many more.  There is solid evidence that these methods are useful.  We can indeed change self-defeating patterns of thought, feeling, and action, often in a surprisingly short period of time.

What happens, however, when life itself is an endless loop of routine, a pattern that fails to bring fulfillment?  At that point, self-help techniques are not what is needed.  We need to move beyond our narrow selves and beyond those routines.  This is the essence of radical renewal:  not improving the ego--the narrow self--but transcending it.  Not traveling the same path better, but finding what Castaneda called "the path with heart".  Our path.  

This is the path we must navigate to exit the loops of our trading problems.

Think of it this way:  in traditional counseling, therapy, and self-help, we seek to change ourselves.  In renewal, we seek a change of our selves.  It's an important difference.  Traditional methods can help us lead better lives.  Through renewal, we truly lead new lives.  With expanding self-determination--a freer will--we become better leaders of our lives.  Renewal is about freeing the will and becoming more of who we actually are in those moments when we are at our best, traveling our paths with heart. 

In the pages that follow, we will explore a wealth of practical resources in psychology, religion, and spirituality that can help us lead our lives and re-new our selves.  We will explore three specific paths to renewal and how these can move our lives--and our trading--forward.

You can see that the book is written in blog format, with each post representing a fresh chapter.  The format makes the book accessible to anyone anywhere with an online connection.  The blog format also allows a seamless integration of links, graphics, and resources within the text.

At a personal level, this book is a radical renewal of my writing.  For a while, I found myself procrastinating over authoring yet another text.  Only when I fully embraced the flaw of my procrastination did it come to me to write an online book.  Immediately I felt excitement.  The blog format, I recognized, means that the text is free of charge.  In writing a free book, I think of the project differently--as a gift. Suddenly writing becomes an act of generosity and gratitude.  It's an opportunity to give a gift to people I've never met, all around the world!  How cool and wonderful is that?!  But it's even more:  Every graphic and link to works that have inspired me becomes a thank you to those who have influenced me, resources I'm privileged to share with others.

Equally exciting is the fact that the blog format allows for comments by readers, my responses to comments, and frequent updating of the text.  As our learning and understanding grow, yours and mine, the book can grow.  When readers contribute insights and I respond, the online book becomes a dialogue, a set of conversations:  a way in which, together, we expand our understanding.  I have written the book but, going forward, I hope that we will continually rewrite it.

In short, renewal--whether in writing a book or crafting our trading--changes what we do and how we do it, turning the commonplace and routine into the dynamic and meaningful.

There was a time we were new--as children--and everything seemed interesting and exciting.  There was no lack of energy and interest.  When we are re-newed, life once again gives us energy.  I can be pumped writing these pages, because the writing isn't work:  it's wrapping gifts.  

What if all of life can be that way?  What if your trading can be that way?  What if your path to fulfillment is already laid out for you, dormant, waiting to be uncovered and discovered?

I look forward to your comments, observations, and questions.  We're all on a life journey.  Let's make it a voyage worth taking.

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