Jared Tendler's Blog, page 6

Be Your Own Coach

Last month I tweeted about an idea I discuss often with my 1:1 clients – the need to be your own coach. The idea struck a bigger chord than I was expecting, so I decided to dive deeper for those who are curious about how to take this idea and put it into practice.

The idea is quite simple. When you’re a poker player, trader, entrepreneur or solo professional in another field, not only are you responsible for your execution, you also have to be your manager or coach (and in some cases you may have multiple roles on top of that like a risk manager, nutritionist or trainer). 

When it comes to performance realms, a coach is critical for productivity, accountability, consistency, motivation, focus and support. Think of all the qualities you’d want in a coach by your side the way that basketball or football players have, and imagine being a version of that for yourself.

Great coaches are great in part because they have a deep understanding about how to get the most out of their players, like when to listen/understand and when to be harsh/critical. They know how you operate so well, they can get you to suck less in those key moments where you’re failing, and push you to be even more precise when you’re performing well but can still do better. Depending on the environment, a coach may be able to call a timeout, sub in a player, offer a big picture perspective, or simply recognize when you need a break. And when you work alone you must learn to play that role yourself.

Over the course of your life you have had parents, coaches, teachers, that played that role for you. If you are coming from a more traditional workforce role, odds are you also had some kind of manager who played that role. When you step out of that structure and create your own environment, it’s challenging and the complexity is often underestimated. Frankly, it’s why most people are not traders and poker players. Managing your entire day and all aspects of the job can be exhausting. Carving out the time and space to coach yourself, however, should be non-negotiable.

Coaching is hard, and it’s harder to do when you don’t even know you were supposed to be doing it! Whether or not you’ve been aware of this additional role, you have that coach in your head already. 

The question is how are they doing? I’m sure it’s a mixed bag for many of you, so get into the details and make this something practical that you can improve.

 

When and How to Coach Yourself

A seemingly simple step that is truly a game-changer is taking review breaks throughout the day. Breaks ensure you are not getting sucked in by momentum, which is especially important when things are going poorly, but also when you’re doing well but could easily trend downward.

When you’re on these breaks and move from execution mode to coach mode, expand your thinking and go back to your tools. Look at your maps and profiles. Review the A to C-Game Analysis to gauge where you are and then make decisions or adjustments.

If things are going well, a break serves the purpose to quickly check in and see if there are any potential problems on the horizon. For many of you, the downside of C-game is greater than the upside of A-game, so you need to be on the lookout for things like accumulated emotion, fatigue and bloated brain. If things look good, take a minute to recommit to your goals and objectives until your next check-in, which you’ll have already determined. My clients typically take a break every 30, 60 or 90 minutes.

If things are not going well, this gives you an opportunity to right the ship. Including taking an extended break. This is the one of the hardest things my clients have to do. Whether you’re a cash game poker player or a trader, it feels wrong to not be active at a time when you decided you would be. Sometimes a coach has to take you out of the game because keeping you in will do more harm than good. If this is hard for you, use the Mental Hand History to help determine why. Logic says when you’re in a poor mental and emotional state, you’re likely losing money…aka, gambling. But emotionally that’s tough to admit in the moment. Give your “coach” license to take you out of the game. 

Of course, that’s not always necessary. Sometimes you just need to talk to yourself in the right way. Injecting Logic is the term I use to describe predetermined statements or phrases that you use to change your perspective and emotional state in real time. But when your emotions are bigger, or you’re a tournament poker player unable to take a break, you might need more help. Arm your “coach” with a paragraph, not just a statement. Maybe add a picture along with it, or play a video of yourself reading that paragraph. In the trenches, use whatever you can to disrupt the momentum of the problem and get yourself in a better frame of mind.

Be clear and intentional about when to take these breaks/reviews and your gameplan to handle a variety of scenarios. Put some structure behind it. The more consistent you are, the easier it is to avoid unnecessary mistakes or losses and to keep yourself performing well.

Plus, the more practice you get toggling between these two modes of execution and coach, the better you will get at it. The better you get, the easier it will be to recognize when it’s time for your coach to step in to provide perspective. And the more you practice being in that coach mode, the better you are training your eye to see what is off and how to correct it.

At the end of the day, coaching yourself isn’t much different from what I’ve encouraged you to do in your mental game work. Sometimes it’s helpful to have a concept, like coaching, that you already know well to make it easier to fully understand what you need to do for yourself day-to-day.

The post Be Your Own Coach appeared first on Jared Tendler.

Tools & Resources to Speed Progress

 

There’s no question that consistent effort will accelerate your mental game progress. To get results, you simply must do the work. Unfortunately, I think many psychology resources unintentionally make it seem like it’s simple to implement new advice or change your perspective by just reading about it. 

Sure, there are times when you can have a big aha moment that transforms your emotional reactions and thoughts, ultimately leading to changes in your performance. But it’s not as common as it seems. And when it doesn’t happen, many poker players, traders and other professionals are left no better off than they were before they heard the advice, although sometimes actually worse off, thinking they did something wrong.  

Think about it this way – you wouldn’t expect to read a book on personal fitness, then look down to see you now have stronger, bigger muscles without actually doing any exercise. In the same way, reading a book on psychology won’t fix your problems or improve your ability to get in the zone. You have to do the work.

With that in mind, just like personal trainers and fitness experts suggest exercises and routines to build muscle or increase endurance, I’ve developed tools and resources (many of which are free) to make it easier for you to do the work to improve your Mental Game. 

If you are new to my work, the summary below offers a simple way to get to know more about what’s available and how to use it. And, if you are already familiar with my work, reminders never hurt!

 

Following a System

 

It starts with a system that’s built for efficiency. I hate wasting time and whenever there is an opportunity to get two benefits for one activity, I’m all in. That’s a lot of what my system is about. For example, you may be using an Injecting Logic statement to stop an emotional reaction in its tracks, but at the same time you’re training yourself to make a lasting correction.

The other benefit of my system is that it is proven to work for people across many different industries, so you don’t have to spend energy worrying if the strategy is right – you just have to worry about personalizing it and making it work for you. 

Often working on your Mental Game can be confusing because you get conflicting advice. You read tips, tricks, pieces of advice on twitter, etc. but it’s not a proven system. A lot of great poker players and traders will tell you via blogs, interviews, or books, what worked for them. But what worked for them may not necessarily work for you. Following my system eliminates that worry and you can just focus on doing the work and personalizing your strategy. 

Below you’ll find a summary of tools and resources to help you learn and apply my Mental Game system.

 

Mapping Your Pattern

The first step of my system, mapping helps you identify both a macro view of your emotional volatility and a micro view of the things that actually derail you. It allows you to identify your patterns so you can recognize signals before they turn into bigger problems. The core tools to use here are the Data Collection sheet and the Profiles (Greed, Fear, Anger, Confidence, and Discipline).

Out of the gate, data collection is the most important step. It helps you start the process of becoming more aware of the granular details of your reactions. The profiles then allow you to organize that information in a way that can be used directly for real-time corrections.

 

The Mental Hand History

The second step of my system is identifying the real roots of your problem, which are the hidden flaws, biases, illusions, and learning errors that are holding you back. When I first started working with poker players I created the Mental Hand History to assist in this process. It is a critical tool and one you should rely on and revisit often. More importantly, it’ll fundamentally rewire how you approach solving problems in your mental game.

 

The A to C-game Analysis

There is also the A-to-C Game Analysis (both for Trading and Poker), which outlines the different levels of your performance, so you can grade your performance, thus making it easier to be less results-oriented. Completing your A-to-C analysis is not something you only do once. If you are doing the work, you will be making progress and it will be important to come back to this tool again to reassess where you are.

 

Other Worksheets & Examples

The most recent addition to the worksheets library is a Perfectionism worksheet designed to encourage you to reshape the faulty perspective that bogs you down. For those of you who thrive on seeing examples of the tools in action, take a look at the Mental Game Stories & Examples we collected from readers earlier this year. If you have suggestions of other areas where the structure of a worksheet might help you focus, let me know!

 

Office Hours

One of the best-reviewed resources I offer right now is my monthly Office Hours. I started this free livestream event back in 2021 and over the last year and a half we’ve covered everything from Identifying the Root of Your Problem to Burnout to the intersection of Procrastination and Perfectionism. 

Office Hours is a great way to get questions answered (either by submitting them in advance or bringing them up live), interacting with the material in a different way, and hearing from others about both their progress and roadblocks. You can participate live or watch the recording and might want to consider subscribing to my YouTube channel so you don’t miss future editions.

 

Coaching Questionnaire

Obviously, coaching is the ultimate in personalized help in navigating my system and if you are interested in learning more, please check out my coaching page for answers to questions about sessions, rates and expectations. 

But even if coaching isn’t for you right now, both traders and poker players often find completing my new client questionnaire (found here) to be thought-provoking and helpful. It is a comprehensive series of questions that can give you clarity on the current state of your mental game and force you to dig into the roots of your problems.

 

Books

As a reminder, you don’t just have to read a book once and put it on the shelf. For The Mental Game of Trading, as well as The Mental Game of Poker 1& 2, you can go back to them again and again. You don’t have to read them chronologically either. Once you know the system, go to the section that you need to review.

And don’t forget about the free Intuition eBook, which is designed to make intuition more recognizable so you can produce it less spontaneously and use it more effectively.

 

Making the Most of The Mental Game of Trading

If you’ve already purchased The Mental Game of Trading, you want to make the most of it, right? Be sure to check out the Quick Guide, a resource to help you move through my system in an efficient and understandable way. If you purchased the audio version, you might also find the free Audible Companion helpful so you can reference material shown in the physical copy such as illustrations, graphs, and samples of tools.

 

Video Resources

Sometimes you want more than the written word. If you are looking for a more robust way to bring the materials to life, check out my two video courses. The Trading Psychology Masterclass walks you through my system and provides a lot of examples with traders of all different levels. For the poker players out there, The Mental Game Tune-Up for Tournament Poker lays out a structure to prepare yourself to play at a high level, for each and every tournament series that you play, and you’ll get to see two top poker pros going through the material and preparing themselves. Plus, once you purchase any of the video material, you have access to it for life.

***

Again, this month is all about Doing the Work. Use these tools to create some structure around your next steps. Because if you are willing to do the work, you can make progress. How much progress is up to you.   

 

 

The post Tools & Resources to Speed Progress appeared first on Jared Tendler.

The Cost of Perfectionism

 

“If you are going to drive for perfection, you have to be strong enough to handle imperfection.” – Jared Tendler, Office Hours #14 (Yeah I’m quoting myself, it’s a good line)

 

 

Perfectionism is a broad, complex problem that shows up in a number of different ways. I actually talked about one of them, when you procrastinate to avoid being less than perfect, in last month’s blog. 

The thing with perfectionism, however, is that you can’t just label it as “bad,” because it is also a high driver of motivation. That motivation, in turn, helps you achieve impressive and sometimes big goals. 

Being motivated to aim high is important and I don’t want you to stop. And yet, you can’t label perfectionism as all good either because while aiming high is great, there are a number of negative consequences that can come from it. Most notably, perfectionism can damage your confidence. Motivation stays high but confidence flat-lines.

You’ll know that perfectionism has crossed that line and become a problem if you:

Put intense pressure on yourself to achieve but can’t handle the pressureFeel like nothing is good enough, even after winningHave trouble relaxing due to internal pressureNever applaud good results, or not for very longDon’t recognize your progressHave a hard time moving on, letting go, or getting over a mistakeTreat all mistakes as equalBecome self-criticism over the slightest misstepsConstantly compare yourself to othersObsess over mistakes, unable to let them go

If you recognize yourself, you are not alone. Perfectionism is one of the most common flaws I see. The question is how can you keep the upside motivation, while ensuring that your confidence continues to climb too. To do that, you have to take a closer look at how you evaluate yourself.

 

 

Faulty Self-Evaluation

To keep your confidence high, you need accurate feedback about your progress and skills, and an accurate perspective on your results. The problem is that as a perfectionist, you don’t do this very well. Most commonly, you fail to recognize progress or give yourself appropriate credit for your wins and accomplishments.

Why? Because you don’t (can’t) measure up to the unrealistic benchmark you measure yourself against. Then, having not met the benchmark, you feel like you are constantly failing or, at a minimum, underperforming.

While an objective observer might say you’ve been successful, you don’t don’t see it. You are only focused on having fallen short of what was expected.

As a result, you become self-critical and get down on yourself. Or you might become risk-averse or angry. As this pattern repeats day after day, your confidence doesn’t have the ability to grow and improve in the way it should relative to what you are actually achieving and improving upon. At worst, your confidence ends up with a great, big, gaping hole that ends up feeding the perfectionism even more because you convince yourself that the answer to being satisfied and confident is becoming more perfect.  

The reality is that as long as this dynamic exists, nothing will ever be good enough and you’ll be one of those successful, miserable people who have achieved a lot but remain so unsatisfied you are constantly irritable and unhappy. Maybe you sense your life is out of balance and are frustrated because you are not really getting enough for this imbalance to exist. Or maybe you recognize that those execution problems are costing you more than you are willing to accept.

But while the issue of perfectionism itself can be intense and lead to high emotional volatility and other execution-oriented problems, the antidote is actually quite simple. It takes work, yes, but you can get yourself to a point where you can retain that intense drive to achieve while growing your confidence simultaneously with your achievements.

 

 

Reshaping Your Perspective 

 

When I talk with clients about how to correct this problem, their first thought is often that I am asking them to lower their expectations or aspirations for themselves. 

NO. I want you to keep your aspirations really high but I want you to change how you evaluate yourself along the way. To do that, I strongly advise that you complete the task I outline in the Perfectionism section of The Mental Game of Trading (page 215 in Chapter 7).

This task may seem simple but don’t underestimate its value. In fact, I’ve had some new clients with this problem who read the book and just skipped it, not realizing how much it would help them…something they found out after our first session! 

To summarize what you need to do, and to assist in completing the necessary work, I created a new worksheet outlining the steps of the process.

 

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Step 1: List out your professional accomplishments (Do your personal ones if your perfectionism is a problem there too)

Step 2: For each accomplishment, answer the three questions listed in the worksheet

Step 3: List the skills you’ve acquired as a professional in your field (page 3 of the worksheet)

MOST IMPORTANT: You can only do this work for 5 to 10 minutes at a time, up to 3 times per day. Perfectionism runs deep and doing the work to reshape your perspective is not something you can do all at once, let alone one month! 

To truly reshape your perspective is going to take a while and you must commit yourself to a regular routine of doing this work. Like I said, it’s simple, but if you do the work in the right way it will be effective. 

For those of you who download the worksheet, I plan to follow up with you in November to see what kind of progress you have made.

 

 

A New Definition of Perfection…Over Time

 

Like many aspects of the mental game, there is rarely one task that resolves a problem for everyone. As you’re working through the task above, you may find other flaws that are part of the problem. One common example is a faulty view of perfection. 

Perfection in the minds’ of many perfectionists is a singular thing, an outcome or endpoint that they envision. But they don’t realize that even their definition of perfection changes over time. Your best does, and has, become better.

Think about it this way: let’s say you’ve recently hit your stride and have been performing “perfectly” in your mind, but you’ve also been able to do that in the past, years ago. There’s no way that your past version of perfection could live up to the standard of your present day perfection. The standard has changed because of your past experience, the work you’ve put in, and the skills you’ve acquired. Your definition of perfection increases over time. 

Whether you realize it or not, your previous version of perfection had weaknesses that you wouldn’t accept in today’s version of perfection. In the same way, you must have weaknesses today that your future version of perfection would not accept.

Correcting previous weak points is a big part of what has allowed you to become more perfect. Thus correcting your current weaknesses is a big part of what you need to reach a new standard of perfection.

Progress like this happens in stages, not all at once. Followers of my work will know I often explain this using the concept of an A-game, B-game, and C-game. A-game is your best (or perfection), C-game is your worst, and B-game is your average level of performance. Your progress, regardless of what you are trying to improve, is modeled by a small caterpillar called an inchworm that moves in a distinctive way.

 

 

Imagine the head of the inchworm is you at your best. The middle part is your B-game, and your worst is at the backend. Your “Inchworm” is your own personal competency in poker, trading, or even individual skills that make up your overall skill in those areas. 

In order to improve, you take one step forward from the front (A-game gets better), followed by another step forward from the back (where your C-game becomes less bad). Over time improvement on both sides moves your whole Inchworm forward, and thus your definition of perfection moves forward.

This is what you have already experienced and accomplished. Your old way of thinking about perfection should feel flawed and outdated like your old smartphone.

Now do the work to upgrade your perspective. Get the latest software update, all the cool kids are doing it. (Sure I’ll throw some peer pressure, but I’ve learned that peer pressure works well on perfectionists…whatever it takes for you to do the work.)

The post The Cost of Perfectionism appeared first on Jared Tendler.

Perfectionists Who Procrastinate

I wrote this post last night after my kid went to bed.  

Just kidding. But if that scenario rings true for you, I get it. I’m a (largely) reformed procrastinator and also have experience working with a variety of different people who struggle with procrastination. I’ve written about it in both The Mental Game of Poker and The Mental Game of Trading because it is a common and persistent problem for so many people.

If you haven’t reviewed the books in a while, let me give you a simple breakdown: procrastination starts with the belief that you can always just do it tomorrow. So you delay. And then “tomorrow” becomes “today” and you delay again. And again. And again. Until you build the skill of delaying instead of the skill of getting the work done. In short, “tomorrow” never comes. It’s a fantasy.

Only when you have waited so long that there are no alternatives but to get it done, are you “inspired” to take action. And if you get away with it? Well, then, what’s the reason to change your habits? The only problem is that as a trader or poker player, procrastination takes away your options and prevents you from developing your competencies in a stable and consistent way. And it can show up in some unexpected places.

One somewhat surprising place that procrastination shows up is in those dealing with perfectionism, which on the surface seems to defy logic. You would think that a perfectionist would have no tolerance for procrastination and they would do the opposite and be working all the time. Of course, some are like that, but many others are not and they get trapped in a cycle of procrastination.

Why Perfectionists Procrastinate

Perfectionism is not a singular affliction. And in some cases, procrastination is a way to avoid being less than perfect. 

When you begin a task, especially one that requires revisions and iterations over time, you’re not going to be very good at the onset – which perfectionists do not like. But if you procrastinate, you can avoid having to face being less than perfect. In this case it is less a belief that there is always tomorrow and more of a distaste for being bad and/or the discomfort with proof that you are currently bad at something.

Another place procrastination rears its ugly head is when you delay making a choice because you are terrified it will be the wrong one. By procrastinating, you shrink the time frame to make the choice, lowering the emotional consequence if you get it wrong and the likelihood or time that you can second-guess the decision.

A poker example is delaying a series of simulations to run or setting your schedule for a poker tournament series. A trading example is not adding mental game content to your post-market cool-down. All because you aren’t 100% sure what you’re doing. This is especially true in industries like poker and trading where false feedback in the short-term only adds to the complexity of evaluating your choice.  

Taking Action

When perfectionists are procrastinators, procrastination is not actually the problem – it’s a symptom, and the true underlying flaw is perfectionism. Perfectionism is a topic I spent a lot of time on in The Mental Game of Trading in a way that’s quite universal. Check out the Perfectionism section of Chapter 7 (Confidence) for a deep dive.

If perfect is what you’re after and you are constantly procrastinating, well it’s clear that what you are currently doing is far from perfect. One thing you can do is redefine what it means to be perfect. Instead of focusing on the results and outcomes you want to obtain, put the focus on perfecting your process. If you take a step back and create a game plan, while giving yourself a chance to test and improve, you become more perfect in your process.

Also, if you think your perfectionism is far too intense and is creating problems for you elsewhere, outside of poker or trading, I suggest looking at your confidence. If perfectionism is impacting multiple areas of your life, in my experience there’s a high chance that you have a weakness in confidence and perfection is your way of compensating for it.

I also want to remind you to focus on progress. You need to be realistic about how to build capacity in your process. If “perfect” is 20 minutes of diligent work in your cool-down, start with 5 minutes and steadily build up to 20 minutes. This practice also links back to confidence as you can acknowledge your success with the smaller goals and continue to build on that success.

Most importantly, expose yourself to the struggle. Keeping yourself in a bubble where you can’t fail hurts both your capability and your resilience. Staying on the sidelines makes your mental game more brittle. Putting yourself in the fire is how you forge strength.

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Evolution of Your Mental Game

You’ve done a bunch of work. You’ve made some progress.  Now what? 

The truth is, it depends. Your next steps will be different based on where you are in your Mental Game journey, and in this blog I’ll walk you through a few of the common scenarios that I see.

First let’s make sure we’re all on the same page with something critical: you cannot solve the Mental Game. You are always going to have something to work on, whether that’s addressing a weakness you have just uncovered or striving to be at your best more often. That we can always improve is part of what it means to be human, right? We will always, all of us, be a work in progress. 

Yet what makes working on the mental game hard is that progress is not always sequential and it can be hard to spot. There are times when a step backwards or the emergence of a new problem can make you feel like you haven’t made progress at all, when that’s actually not true.  Accepting that each evolution will bring new areas to work on is an important way to minimize the chance you will get derailed. 

Let’s look at some of the most common scenarios I see after a period of progress.

Before Reaching Resolution 

Those of you who have made progress but not achieved resolution are at risk of taking your eye off the ball. You are seeing some improvements and you may begin to either work less in general, or work less on your Mental Game. 

While there are signs your Mental Game is improving, you haven’t firmly moved the back end of inchworm forward. You are not on solid enough ground yet to trust that you won’t see regression in this area. As I shared in another blog a few months ago, the Adult Learning Model requires that you keep skills steadily moving through the learning process so that high levels of performance can be maintained. 

You need to keep working. Don’t get ahead of yourself. This problem can, and likely will, come back to haunt you at some point if you don’t continue to work on it.

Uncovering More Problems

One of the challenges to working on your Mental Game is uncovering lots of other problems you didn’t know you had. This can lead to feeling overwhelmed and not being sure what to do next, or where to focus. My suggestion is to choose one of two directions described below.  

Option 1 is to go as deep as possible on one of the problems and see if there are linkages between it and your other problems. Sometimes several surface level problems actually stem from a singular flaw and going deep may allow you to hit many things at once. However, that’s not always the case, and it can be intense to do some of that deeper introspection.

Option 2 is to pick one of the surface problems (e.g. outbursts of anger, frozen by fear) that you have the most command of and try to get some wins under your belt. Build in an area that you’re already strong, gain more experience using my system, and then you can move on to another problem. 

Also, if you have found that confidence is an issue, I suggest working on it sooner rather than later as it is often linked to other problems. Confidence is the base of your mental game, so much like problems in the foundation of a house can cause problems on the first and second floor, weaknesses or problems with confidence can be the primary cause of anger, fear, greed, and discipline or motivation problems.

After Reaching Resolution

Others of you have made real and distinct progress and gotten past your fear or tilt, etc. Those emotions no longer derail you and true resolution has occurred. Congratulations! Your hard work has paid off!

Unfortunately, at this point, you might find that overconfidence is now an issue. This is incredibly common. Emotions like fear and anger can suppress your sense of what you are capable of doing. With those issues removed, you start to perform better and make more money, and suddenly your view of what you can achieve increases rapidly. It becomes easy to get lost in the thoughts and fantasies of what it would be like performing like this all the time and how much money you’re going to make.

Sometimes overconfidence was lurking in the background from the beginning, other times it is a common progression in your mental game. Either way, don’t get discouraged, just go back to the drawing board, and use the system to break down this problem just as you did with the others.

*****

Wherever you are in your Mental Game, don’t give up. However, you don’t have to dive back in and address the next topic right away after a period of intense mental game focus. Sometimes it can be easy to get sucked into momentum, when maybe taking a step back and working on technical expertise may be more important and you should be prioritizing that.

While I am obviously a believer that your Mental Game is critical, I’m also a realist. The mind can only make you so much better and if you don’t have the technical skill to support your next steps, progress can stall.

The question really, then, is what do you need next? From an inchworm perspective, do you need to push your back end forward (improve your C-game) or push your front end forward (improve your A-game or get there more often)? 

Either way, continue to work the process. Use my books as guides, take advantage of the worksheets, check out my webinar series, but most importantly, keep showing up for yourself and identify the next steps to improve.

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Find the “Rocks” in Your Mind

Many people have an innate flaw in the way they try to solve problems like fear, tilt, low confidence, etc. – they don’t look deep enough. I was driven to learn more about the Mental Game when traditional sports psychology material didn’t help me solve problems handling intense pressure as an aspiring professional golfer. The more I learned, the more I realized that too often people aren’t looking far enough below the surface to identify the real problems.

Let me give you an analogy. If you have pain while you are walking, what’s the problem? Is it the shoe, the material of the road you are walking on, too tight socks?

When you get curious about what’s causing the pain, you have a better chance of correcting it. Let’s say once you look closer, the problem is simple enough – you have a rock in your shoe. So is the problem the pain? No, it’s the damn rock!

Too many people think pain is the problem and don’t take the step back to understand what’s causing the pain. They look at the pain points in their mental game like fear, greed, anger, distraction, and think that’s the problem to solve. So they stop analyzing any further and focus on strategies that are essentially pain management (aka trying to reduce fear, greed, distraction, anger).

This isn’t inherently a bad strategy, especially in the short-term. But this is unreliable because emotions can actually prevent you from controlling your fear, greed or overconfidence. Plus, in the long-term you can become less adaptive, limit your potential upside, your performance will have excessive highs and lows, and you’re likely to burnout more frequently.

Instead, you have to find the rock—you need to figure out what’s causing those emotional pain points.

 

What is The Rock?

 

No, not that one. The rock, your rock, is the underlying flaw driving your emotional swings and repetitive errors.

Now, when I recommend digging deeper to get to the underlying issues, people usually assume we are going to begin talking about their personal life and looking for Mommy/Daddy issues. Cue the eye-rolling, big sighs, and impatient frustration with “psychobabble.”

Look, there are many people out there that do actually need to talk to a professional about things from their past that are impacting their daily lives. But that’s not my focus. My niche is in improving performance, and when you are looking at how psychology impacts performance, the work is more practical.

From a practical standpoint, the biggest contributor to your errors and emotional volatility is what lies below the surface, such as flaws like:

Expecting to always be your bestThe need to be rightBelieving mistakes are inherently badBelieving you are unluckyThe illusion of emotional controlAssuming the worst/best will happen (aka being a shitty psychic)

These are examples of some of the rocks that are behind your emotional reactions. The key is for you to find the ones that are affecting you.

 

The Mental Hand History

The tool that I developed to help dig deeper and find the rocks in your mind is called the Mental Hand History (Follow the link to download a version you can use). The name comes from my work with poker players, as I was trying to get them to work on their mental game in the same structured way that they would work on their technical game.

The Mental Hand History helps you analyze information and identify the flaw. There are five steps:

STEP 1: Describe the problem in detail.

STEP 2: Explain why it makes sense that you have this problem, or why you think, feel, or react that way.

STEP 3: Explain why the logic in Step 2 is flawed.

STEP 4: Come up with a correction to that flawed logic.

STEP 5: Explain why that correction is correct.

 

Here are a few examples so you have an idea of what this looks like.

Describe the problem in detail: Aware that I’m not being aggressive from the right levels, but when I tell myself to be more aggressive it comes out in the wrong way and I will try to force something in the opening range.Explain why it makes sense that you have this problem, or why you think, feel, or react that way: Feels like I’m trying to prove something to myself. That in volatile markets I can get a trade on in the opening range. It would mean that I’m capable of executing on the methodology to full extent possible.Explain why the logic in Step 2 is flawed: You’re making it about yourself and not about the market. You’re putting the opening range on a pedestal. It’s not the end all be all.Come up with a correction to that flawed logic: Take what the market gives you, not what you want it to be.Explain why that correction is correct: Putting pressure on myself to find something in the opening range blinds me from actually seeing an opportunity. I can find these opportunities, but NOT when blind myself!

Describe the problem in detail: I hate when weak regs, or a reg that I know is good, plays badly and wins.Explain why it makes sense that you have this problem, or why you think, feel, or react that way: If they played better, or like they do normally, I would have won the hand. Obviously I should be happy since I’m winning long-term from their mistakes, but they just play so bad sometimes, it’s insane how they can show up with hands like that.Explain why the logic in Step 2 is flawed: I’m trying to control how they play, which obviously is impossible. And I’m focusing too much on short-term results. The worst part is that I’m losing control of my game trying to control theirs!Come up with a correction to that flawed logic: Rather than trying to control the decisions other players make, make sure you’re making the decisions you want to make. That’s how you can have the most control in the short-term, and long-term.Explain why that correction is correct: It just is.

 

Do the Work

Actually completing a Mental Hand History can be challenging. But just like the mapping process, where you see your mental and emotional patterns better the more you focus on them, the more you think about the cause of your problems, like the Mental Hand History trains you to do, the more details you’ll gather that will help you complete it.

Looking at examples can be a great way to get started. Enter your name and email below to see how readers of my books are completing Mental Hand Histories and using other worksheets.

 

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Also, keep in mind that The Mental Game of Poker and The Mental Game of Trading were designed to help you complete a Mental Hand History. The Chapters on Tilt, Greed, Fear, Confidence, Discipline and Motivation are all filled with a ton of advice and perspective to help you dig out the rocks in your mind.

And while the books are there to help, you need to actively use the tools described in them. Reading examples is a great way to help you understand the material, but it does not replace your individual experience.

Use the books as guidance but complete your own Mental Hand History because the way you experience individual flaws may be different than someone else, even if you are struggling with the same challenge. In other words, your shitty psychic might make different predictions than someone else’s shitty psychic.

Do the work and go find your rock!

The post Find the “Rocks” in Your Mind appeared first on Jared Tendler.

Why You Need a System

I released The Mental Game of Trading last April and while in some ways I can’t believe it’s been a year, in other ways I feel like it was a lifetime ago. The biggest thrill has been furthering my connection to the trading audience, meeting new people, and hearing stories about how the book is helping you (seriously, keep those coming – I never get tired of them!).

My goal with the book was to bring a fresh take on trading psychology to the market and I’m happy with how I met that goal. The research I did in November 2021 confirmed that traders know why psychology matters and what you really need is help on how to address your problems. While 91% of traders are able to recognize when emotions are impacting their performance, only 34% feel like they have a concrete strategy to manage those emotions. My system bridges that 57 point gap.

System Basics

When you are making the same mistakes over and over, your emotions are the culprit.  Emotions are so powerful they can simply shut down your decision-making. The system, however, enables you to understand what’s driving the emotion. It teaches you to pay attention to what the emotions are actually telling you and has proven successful with traders and other competitive professionals time and time again.  

At its most basic, my system has three steps, each of which has its own set of tools and strategies.  

Map Your Pattern: Creating a detailed map of your emotional reactions allows you to recognize the rise of emotion more quickly so you can minimize the impacts.Identify the Roots of Your Problem: Emotions are not the problem, they are just the signal. To get to the real issues you need to uncover the hidden flaws, biases, and illusions driving the emotion.Correct Your Problem: Create a strategy to address problems in real-time and then consistently apply it. Eventually you’ll get to the point where the problem is permanently solved and you can move on. 

A lot of traders and poker players may wish they could easily correct FOMO, greed, risk aversion, being overly focused on P&L, etc., with some quick advice. Who doesn’t want a quick and easy answer? But simplistic advice doesn’t hold up when it matters the most. In the heat of the moment, you need more than advice. My system gives you the strategies and tools you need to make progress before, during, and after those pressure-cooker moments.

The process I guide you through is actionable and repeatable. The system gives you the steps to take to start recognizing when and where problems are surfacing. It gives you the tools to address the problems real-time, and it shows you how to iterate and repeat the process until you resolve the original problem so you are not just having to fight for control, but instead automatically have the poise, presence, and fearlessness you are seeking.

 

Learn How to Repair Your Engine

The other big perk of learning and using my system is that it allows you to make progress on your own. Imagine you were a truck driver. Your livelihood depends on your ability to get from point A to point B, on time. You can’t afford to be stuck on the side of the road waiting for help. You need to learn the basics of engine maintenance so you can fix your truck and get back on the road. 

Your Mental Game is like that engine. As you work with the system more and more, you become knowledgeable about how to fix your own Mental Game. That’s powerful. You don’t always have the luxury of seeking out help, particularly when emotions are rising quickly. 

The more you can help yourself, the better off you are. When you understand the mechanics of how your mind works and the ways in which it can break down, it becomes easier to avoid bigger set-backs, continue to make progress, and not get stuck/break-down. 

And for those who are consistently making progress, if you continue to work the system you can continue to level up your performance.  

If you haven’t read The Mental Game of Trading or The Mental Game of Poker yet, I hope you’ll give it a try. It explains the system in detail and there are a number of stories throughout the book that will help you see yourself in the material. If you have read it, continue to re-read sections that are relevant to you and keep working the process.

You may also want to check out the Quick Guide in the resources section of my website to help you stay on track.

Either way, it’s been a helluva year and I’m looking forward to continuing to help traders use my system to improve their performance!

 

The post Why You Need a System appeared first on Jared Tendler.

Video Course in the Palm of Your Hand

I’m excited to announce that the Mental Game Tune Up for Tournament Poker is now available via app for both Apple and Android devices. 

The app puts the entire course in the palm of your hand, wherever you are, whenever you need it. The best feature is that you don’t have to rely on an internet connection to view the videos. Instead, you can simply download the entire series to your phone and view it offline. So, when you are….

 

Sitting at the table and starting to feel burnt out, you can check in quickly to get advice and strategies on what to do.  Playing against a guy that consistently gets under your skin and starting to feel yourself getting tilted, you can review how to control tilt and other emotions.On a plane out to your next live event, you can work on your goals and make a game plan for the series. App Now Available for Android & Apple!

Download the entire series to your phone and quickly reference the course while you’re sitting at the table!

You must be a registered user of the course to be able to log in via the app. If you haven’t enrolled yet, this is the time! SCOOP and the WSOP are coming up and, as I explained in my last blog, career-changing/defining opportunities require tuning up your mental game to ensure you are as buttoned up as possible.

 

I want you to succeed, you need to do the work. Period. For my part, I’ve lowering the threshold with a $200 savings on the video course through the end of March.

 

The course itself is packed with value. With more than 13 hours of content broken into easy to digest modules, it offers step-by-step coaching, a practical approach with real results, and downloadable worksheets to measure your progress. It’s the same approach I use with poker pros on their preparation, and the videos include unscripted sessions with veteran pros Matt Affleck and Diego “Die Ventura” Ventura.

 

Remember, once you buy the course, you can use it to prepare for every series you play in, and with the app, it’s now even easier. Enroll today, download the app, and get started!

The post Video Course in the Palm of Your Hand appeared first on Jared Tendler.

Sharpen Your Ax

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the ax.”
–Abraham Lincoln

This is a great quote about execution. To be at your best you need to ensure that when you enter the arena your tools are sharp and you have what you need to execute to the best of your ability.

I wonder what Abe would say about preparing for competition in something like the World Series of Poker (WSOP) or Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP)? My guess is it would be similar. Instead of an ax, you’ll have your expertise and the quality of your mental game. You’ve got 2 months to prepare for SCOOP, which lasts 4 weeks, using Abe’s ratio you need to start preparing now.


Being Ready
Assessing how well-prepared you are to play poker or golf, trade, etc. is essentially gauging your level of readiness. The level of readiness you need is dependent on the situation and the stakes. For instance, if you are in the midst of the daily grind, preparation that includes your daily warm-up and cool-down is likely sufficient. If, however, you are competing in a major tournament like SCOOP or the WSOP with career-changing/defining opportunities daily, preparation looks entirely different.

At that point it becomes about starting months ahead of time (spoiler: I mean NOW) to upgrade your skills/expertise and look at the major areas of your mental game to ensure you are as buttoned up as possible in each and every one.

The daily grind rarely allows for this kind of dedicated focus on upgrading skills (though I have some ideas at the end for Traders, who have less of a “season” than poker players and golfers). But when you are looking at tournament play, there is a cycle. Prepare, compete, rest. Prepare, compete, rest. Right now, you’re in the preparation cycle and you should be doing everything in your power to ensure you are at the top of your game before the WSOP and SCOOP begin.

Once it’s time to compete, you’re taking the test. Your time to study has passed. All you have at that moment is what you’ve prepared – the odds of you conjuring next-level play is so low you’re gambling.

You need to be ready. Last month, I explained that new skills, knowledge, or expertise are acquired through a predictable learning process that has a distinct start and finish. The Adult Learning Model has four stages and the last, Unconscious Competence, is only reached when you’ve learned something so well it becomes automatic. If you half-ass it, you will be stuck in one of the earlier stages and once you are fatigued or run into a problem, any newly acquired skills/expertise will go out the window.




Upgrading Skills
Obviously there is preparation that goes into your day-to-day performance. But I am talking here about the long-term development of expertise/problem-solving. This is similar to the cyclical routine that athletes follow. Season, followed by training, followed by season.

The PGA Tour players I coach, for instance, have a set of preparatory goals for the off-season, which get them tournament-ready for when the season kicks off. In fact, the first of the five biggest tourneys in the world is coming up this week, The Players, and has the largest purse ever in golf history – a whopping $20M.

The players obviously want to be ready to capitalize on that opportunity, which means during December and January they were working on their physique and swing, as well as leveling up aspects of their Mental Game. Not last week, or even last month. They spent intensive time in the off-season because it is harder to do long-term development when they are in-season. This cycle applies to more than athletes.




Getting Ready for WSOP & SCOOP
In particular I want to call attention to the role of preparation for tournament poker players. When you are trying to prepare for a series like WSOP or SCOOP, you need to carve time out dedicated to leveling up your skill set in a more distinct and profound way.

This is true whether you are new to poker or a returning pro. Last year Diego Ventura and Matt Affleck worked with me on tournament prep and I included it in my Mental Game Tune Up for Tournament Poker video course. My course is a solid way to structure your prep and at least one bracelet winner tells me it contributed to her success in 2021.

Right now, you need to define the areas you want to improve and this is still the time to get started. You don’t want to coast along when taking care of the big line items could give you a large jump in performance/execution. If you are advanced in your mental game work, you may be able to simply review and take stock, and can focus on other areas of your game to improve. If, on the other hand, your mental game needs work, now is the time to do the real work needed to improve. Don’t procrastinate and cram at the last minute – it’s simply not as effective.

Instead, have a period of focused study/training well in advance and then slowly decrease that time as the event gets closer. Then shift into integrating what you’ve learned, which is all about taking what you’ve learned and applying it.

In summary, your prep cycle should be to pull back from daily play, study, and gradually go back into daily play. WSOP and SCOOP offer significantly larger payouts than the daily grind. You know how much opportunity there is. If you want to capitalize on it, start now. To motivate you to get started the right way, use code: Prepare2022 to save $200 on my video course. Valid only until March 31.


Traders Making Their Own Cycle
If you’re a trader, long-term development/upgrading skills is a bit trickier because there isn’t a comparable cycle. The markets are always open, so you have to define a cycle throughout the year.

Look at when you usually take time off, or whether there are periods that are naturally quieter. If they tend to happen at certain times of the year, you can plan for it.

If quiet times are more spontaneous as the market changes, another approach is to have the materials ready that you need to keep yourself from staring at screens. Don’t waste an opportunity to look at new indicators or set-ups, backtest new strategies, etc. Use that time wisely.

Another benefit is this strategy also reduces the risk that you will take sub-optimal trades and waste capital because you feel the need to just do something.

Regardless of whether you are a golfer, poker player, trader or other type of professional, being well-prepared reduces fear, bolsters confidence, and helps you identify trouble spots in advance so you are not thrown by them at your decision-point. It’s literally a game-changer.

The post Sharpen Your Ax appeared first on Jared Tendler.

New Trading Webinar Series

I’m excited to announce my new Webinar Series – Trading Psychology Masterclass in partnership with TraderLion. This guided workshop on using my system to improve your Mental Game will be completed over the course of five two-hour sessions spaced out over eight weeks. I’m particularly excited about what we’re creating because I’ve purposefully structured it to meet some of the biggest needs you’ve shared with me in the recent survey:AccountabilityExamplesConnection

The Accountability of Coaching at a Fraction of the Price

The webinar series will help you learn a full system to address the emotional problems that are holding you back and allow you to improve your execution. There is a tremendous amount of value built into this series. You will receive 10 hours of instruction for the price of 1 private coaching session. The webinar series is designed to mimic the process of private coaching: the sessions build on each other, you will be assigned homework/exercises and given deadlines to complete them, and the overall timeline will be comparable. I’ve seen many clients make significant progress completing 3-4 sessions over the course of 2-3 months and you will get 5 sessions in 8 weeks. While readers of The Mental Game of Trading will find the high level content to be familiar, the series will give you a comprehensive, hands-on experience to build an even stronger foundation for your trading. And don’t worry if you haven’t yet read the book – you will be able to follow the material easily.

Examples Directly from Participants

For those of you looking for more examples of completed profiles, maps, goal worksheets, etc., this is your chance. The specific examples covered in this series will be driven by the materials participants submit. I will be assigning work you will complete between sessions. In addition, I will ask participants to submit examples, then review some of the submissions during the webinars. You’ll get practical, highly relevant advice, as well as examples and stories that will help you see yourself in the material. And, for those whose examples are used in the webinar, you will be able to see your personal submissions reviewed by me.

Connection with Other Traders

With this webinar series you won’t be in it alone. Traders just like you will be participating at the same time, reviewing topics and completing assignments in the same timeframe. In addition, you will have access to an online forum where you can connect directly with each other, at a volume and pace that works for you. Put it all together and you’ll get to connect with other traders and have partners in accountability.

Check out this video where I discuss the upcoming Webinar Series with Richard Moglen from TraderLion.

How to Reserve Your Spot

I’ve worked with TraderLion to reserve 100 spots at a significant discount for my audience. As part of this Launch Special you will:

Enjoy a $300 discount using code: JTBe entered into a separate lottery for 1 free personal coaching session with meReceive an exclusive infographic, 8 Hacks to Improve Your Mental PerformanceParticipate in a survey that will help shape the specific direction, emphasis, and examples of the 5 webinarsGet lifelong access to the webinar series Sign Up Today
Webinar Schedule

Registered users can participate during the live sessions but will also gain lifetime access to the recordings after the live session. Webinars will be held on:

Saturday, April 9, 2022 at 11:30am – 1:30pm Eastern TimeSaturday, April 23, 2022 at 11:30am – 1:30pm Eastern TimeSaturday, May 7, 2022 at 11:30am – 1:30pm Eastern TimeSaturday, May 21, 2022 at 11:30am – 1:30pm Eastern TimeSaturday, June 4, 2022 at 11:30am – 1:30pm Eastern Time

I’m excited about this new venture. My hope is that I can reach a lot of traders at one time, helping you take your performance to the next level.

Reserve Your Spot

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