[00:00:00] I want to talk about grind versus flow today and I apologize too for the shitty sound quality.
[00:00:08] I have some walking headphones and aren't so good right now and I have to get some different ones but
[00:00:13] yeah it's just what it is for right now.
[00:00:16] But on the grind to flow thing, it's kind of one of the more important themes in my life.
[00:00:22] I was raised like a lot of you in this get up really early work super hard
[00:00:28] and I'm listening to Nick Saban the Alabama coach his book right now and I've listened to a lot of books similar about
[00:00:33] just relentless work ethic and perseverance and things like that.
[00:00:38] And his story is interesting because he talks about how it was recruiting and talent evaluation that was his big edge
[00:00:45] and he said he wasn't even that great of a coach compared to a lot of other coaches.
[00:00:48] He was just really really good at talent evaluation and recruiting.
[00:00:52] So everyone from the janitor or the secretary they knew that the building had to be show ready at all times
[00:00:57] because that was the main game everyone knew that which is interesting parallel to the market
[00:01:02] because you don't have to be the best trader but if you're good at putting yourself in the spots where you're successful
[00:01:07] you can have a little wiggle room and do really well.
[00:01:09] And that's kind of a story of me in a way for in trading I'm not always the best executor
[00:01:15] I really feel like I'm I mean when I was around more traders in Chicago
[00:01:21] certainly my spots weren't always the best but I did do a good job of knowing where I was going to be strong
[00:01:26] like my win percentage was probably in the low 30% but I was really good at holding my winners
[00:01:30] riding them adding to them and then cutting the losers short.
[00:01:33] So I had mistakes you know where I took big losers and stuff like anybody but generally that was the path
[00:01:39] that was the process that I got good at.
[00:01:42] And so now as I think about life as it goes on from here
[00:01:47] I really want to go from that grind to the flow state.
[00:01:51] So you know the flow state would be things come easy because you know where you're good
[00:01:56] you work smart you don't have to it doesn't mean that you don't work hard
[00:02:00] it means that the hard work is natural alignment it just kind of flows to you
[00:02:04] like you work hard but you don't realize you're working hard because you're enjoying it
[00:02:07] versus the grind which is like fuck 6 a.m. I got to get up lift weights do my thing
[00:02:13] you know what I mean and there's a way to do it that's not that way
[00:02:16] and I think you get a lot farther when it's not that way when there's like
[00:02:19] you doing it for the love of doing it or for the process and I get stuck a lot in
[00:02:24] in an old school sort of Midwestern checklist every day I get a little better
[00:02:30] I do my exercise I do my work and it can get it can really burn you out
[00:02:35] and a lot of people who if you're listening and you're in your 20s or you're younger
[00:02:40] you might not have experienced this yet but and I want to do a long podcast
[00:02:44] or something on longevity as a trader too I've done some of that in the past
[00:02:48] because as you go through this and not just a trader but anything you're not going to be
[00:02:53] you're not going to make it big picture even if you're successful monetarily
[00:02:57] for a while if you don't start taking care of yourself and I'll talk about that
[00:03:02] different podcast but it's thinking for the long term like for your body too
[00:03:06] it's like you're pumping away doing power cleans that's fine
[00:03:10] but when you're 50 no one's doing them really 60 years old you don't see people doing that
[00:03:14] people are doing yoga and they're walking incline and they're doing zone 2 training
[00:03:18] and they're doing body weight exercises for a reason because they want longevity
[00:03:22] and they realize that you just kind of that stuff's great and then it's not great at some point
[00:03:26] and people would argue with that but generally speaking that's what I've found
[00:03:30] and I think the same thing goes for trading is figuring out how can you figure out
[00:03:36] how can you figure out how to tap into the spots that you're good
[00:03:38] can you make, can you program indicators, can you have a life set up
[00:03:42] can you figure out where that you can sink in for yourself and be effective
[00:03:46] without feeling like you're grinding and slaving away and just kind of beating yourself up every day to do it
[00:03:52] and because you can give yourself so much anxiety and stress by having this checklist
[00:03:57] grind push life and there's got to be other people out there who feel this way
[00:04:01] because I felt this way a lot and it's a huge problem for me
[00:04:05] and I've had some really good periods where I haven't been like this in a half period
[00:04:08] where I think naturally it's just that's what you see around you as examples of success
[00:04:12] people command and control work really hard it's the only way
[00:04:16] and again it's not don't work hard that's not what I'm saying
[00:04:19] but there's a difference and I think finding that state of turning it on at the right time
[00:04:27] at the right moment and just kind of staying and conserving your energy and resting
[00:04:32] I read this book called slow productivity recently and he talked about how
[00:04:36] equal amounts of time need to be spent in rest as in the push
[00:04:41] so that could be for mental emotional work, trading
[00:04:45] or it could be physical work like exercise or training for a competition or whatever
[00:04:51] if you go really really hard for three months you might need three months where you don't do a whole lot
[00:04:55] so it's okay to be unbalanced like you know for protein synthesis
[00:04:59] it's said that we handle lots of protein over a day or two really well
[00:05:03] and then we don't have any for four days it's actually a good way to do it
[00:05:06] versus like three square meals of protein every day that's not really efficient
[00:05:10] but that's what we do because we want to do things real linear and safe and predictable
[00:05:15] but it's actually thinking about it more as like maybe your evenings
[00:05:20] you need to chill out and relax and watch a show read a book and just do nothing
[00:05:23] and then maybe for a while you're starting a new business
[00:05:26] and then your evenings are nothing but work for three months six months straight years
[00:05:29] working in the evening every day until 10 and 11 o'clock at night
[00:05:32] and then when that push gets done you're not doing anything like that
[00:05:35] in the evening for three to six months that would be balance
[00:05:38] it's not linear but it's balance and I think finding that out for your trading
[00:05:44] and how you're going to structure your day is just so important
[00:05:47] and that's I'm just really thinking about that again
[00:05:51] I've hired a coach in the past and gone through a lot of this
[00:05:54] and read a lot of books on it and experienced it watch people do it
[00:05:57] and there's more examples of people who don't who are very successful
[00:06:00] who do it kind of to their own detriment versus do it this way
[00:06:04] and I want to do it this way so that's kind of me talking to myself for today
[00:06:09] and that's where I'm going to be looking into next