I have had the most fantastic month being home on the beach. I have not been offline but I dont need to be offline to get rejuvenated, just off the road.
This year I will refocus on the power of routine. I am rethinking routine as it relates to everything these days. Attitude and imitation will only get you so far. Routine matters. Routine gets you out of bed and executing.
A daily 5-00 AM PST routine since 1996 has helped me manage a fund and stay on top of the markets. The routine has helped me take back some time for other interests as I have refined my strategies and execution for my hedge fund.
A lot of my recent thinking about routine has to do with my kids sudden interest in golf. I don’t know if I should have forced the game more on them, but they finally have a bit of the bug. My son is almost unteachable, but bangs hundreds of balls at the speed of light. His form during the swing is great.
He has imitated his way to decent ball striking, but refuses to build a routine about anything so I just let him play. I try my best to slow him down and teach him a pre-shot routine. He will do it once in a while, but not with an understanding of why it is important. My daughter is a perfectionist and wants to play with me. She likes the driving range and learning about the pre shot routine, but because she has not banged enough range balls, struggles on the golf course.
One example I aim too fix with my routine, is the consistency of my blog. Twitter did not kill my blog, nor stocktwits, just a bad routine. I spent most of 2011 overthinking, not picking a topic and letting it fly on my blog. The last few weeks I am writing something before I go to bed. I can touch it up in the morning and off it goes. Routine.
My public speaking is another area I aim to improve in 2011. I did a lot of speaking in 2011 and did not take it serious enough. I did not have a routine and winged it every time.
The thoughts/topics that resonated most:
1. Talk about a failure. We all fail and so you might as well come clean with a doozie or two.
2. Strong Visuals.
3. Punch a Banker…Hug a Developer ( Bank of America and Goldman have made this line too easy but Code Academy will give this phrase infinite legs ).
4. Foreplay Foreplay Foreplay. You can find what you want on the web in seconds, but it does not mean you should ask for it.
5. How to Sell…from cold calls to red eyes.
Talking about the long -term power of building a routine will be an addition to these talking points.
Do not underestimate the power of routine.
great points. James Altucher is all about the Daily Practice. I am building in the same, but need to get my routine more focused and productive. Half the time it’s just to relive various forms of constipation, mental and otherwise.
you can do it jeff :) but you do have that air of constipation of which you speak.
For those of us with ADD, routine is not only something that is helpful, but actually critical in order to make forward progess in life. Without it we spin off into a thousand well intentioned but unfinished projects. “Routine” is a cognitive process that actually reburns pathways through our neural networks and creates that structure that most develop normally when children. I have about 183 blog posts on this subject in me.
the simple thing about routine in this light is it takes the small muscles and as much of the brain out of it…thats why quant and computer trading have become so popular
if you get it in routine, you can let the large muscles do the repetitive stuff.
It’s why I think most people can do it themselves but are talked out of it by the confusing jargon. the jargon is all a isdirection for people not woilling to have a simple routine.
if i don’t write in the morning, i don’t write. same with trading plan, etc., I’m useless if i haven’t tackled things in the same general order as i did yesterday
Where can I install the routine plugin?
bend over…open wide….cough twice….its in
After that technique, I’m ready to hobble into my routine.