There is a significant difference between worrying and playing out our worst case scenarios in our minds and using visualization to prepare for a multitude of events in our lives. Worry implies fear or discomfort that you may or may not encounter in the future. Visual practice is more about running through certain situations and determining that you are capable of handling anything that pops up along the way.



Worrying is unproductive. It saps us of our time, our energy, and our strength. When we worry, our mental capabilities decline sharply and we run the risk of turning into whiners and complainers without a lot of action to back up our inaction. Practice visualization is a totally different animal. Instead of creating a fear based situation in your mind, you are actually trying to determine how each possible action that you can take might affect that scenario.

This is a preparation move, not a worrying and fear based move. During a visualization you will have the opportunity to check in on your mental attunement, on your thought processes and patterns, and how you might effectively deal with the situation. During a worry session you are more apt to feel out of control, alone, and afraid. These feelings are not likely to produce a lot of activity that will be helpful to your business.

Using visual techniques in order to apply you possible outcomes and help gear you up toward action should these situations ever arise. There are a few arguments against visualization out there, including the thought that if you put it in your head you are inviting it happen. In some cases, when visualization prompts a lot of worry and the feeling of being out of control, you have to go back and try to visualize the scenario again in order to find useful and helpful thought patterns.

The key to understanding whether or not your visualization is prompting a state of worry is really quite simple. Just checking in with your emotional scale during any type of visualization and notice whether you are calm, relaxed and in control. When you feel these things then you are coming up with useful preparedness to help you cope more effectively with the potential for loss or a change in plans.

As you develop your scenarios, you will also start to become more and more intimate with the systematics of trading. Trading is based on a very simple principle that is not always easy to recognize. There are plenty of times when opportunity is disguised behind what appears to be a problem. If you are still fearful while you are visualizing, then you have a pretty good handle on how you might feel should the situation actually arise in real time. If this is the case, I would recommend running through a variety of possible outcomes and decide which one suits you the best.

Finally, visualization techniques also help you stick to your trading plan. When we are in the moment, sometimes we find that we react without thinking too much about our reactions. If you have a trading plan, you already know that it is easy to follow when things look like they will work out for you. But when it seems like things are not going to go your way, you run the risk of acting instinctually without sticking to your well thought out trading plan. Running through a few likely situations in your mind help to direct your mind toward resolving the situation should it occur. Keeping your mind free from worry but planning and thinking through possibilities helps to set you up for a great deal of success.