#317: Focus on habits, not goals

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Simon Shares

• I was at the Mandela Lecture on Tuesday at which Barack Obama spoke. A special day. A truly talented orator and a speech well worth watching.
• Famous Brands* (JSE code: FBR) CFO quits. Now directors are always quitting, but the CFO when you have indigestion from a over priced UK burger?
• JSE (JSE code: JSE) trading update is strong. HEPS to be 30%-40% higher. In part thanks to a tax credit, retrenchments from last year kicking in the savings but also they say increased revenue.
• Rand slowly moving stronger. According to the big mac index, it should be R5.63/US$! 
• A listener asked abut Group 5 (JSE code: GRF). A nasty chart and this after a R1.6bn offer by Greenbay (JSE code: GRP) for their European Toll assets they now have a market cap of some R120million. This suggests the rest of the group is totally bankrupt, which it may be and while it appears to offer great value, this is a globally tough sector I continue to stay well away from.
• Platinum around $820, lowest price since the post bubble crash in 2008 and before that 2004. Wayne McCurrie says on Twitter there is also the biggest net short position since 1999. This is a horror for the miners and another sector to stay well away from until we see some decent upside price action. Not just a few $ higher, a real sustained looking rally.
• Cash Club: Forget about the Joneses

Make habits not goals

We tend to focus on goals. I want to be a millionaire, a billionaire. I want to be a successful trader. I want to invest like Buffett and so on.

But we do it wrong forgetting the steps to reaching the goal. These steps are the habits that ensure success.

If your goal is to run a marathon, you don't start off one cold morning at the start line for a 42.2km run. You start with getting off your couch and trying a small walk to the other couch. Then maybe a short jog to the bottle store for supplies and so on until one day you do complete a full marathon.

The large scary goals are seldom achieved because they are mono focused and overly large. So large in fact that we forget that a goal is actually a series of small steps that taken together get us through the journey.

So instead of large scary goals, focus on forming habits. Winning habits that will help us reach the end. Habits that in time will become second nature to us.

Focus on the small steps. Improve them. Review your trading and investing, where are you make mistakes? How do you improve and stop the mistakes? Focus on single issues that are holding you back and find ways for you to do them better. Focus on one or two small things until you're a master, then move onto the next one or two areas. You'll never run out of things to improve and you'll always be getting better.

Do perfect trades. Become ruthless with stop losses. Only buy quality. And so on.

Identify your problems and work to fix them.

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