My Resolution for 2012: Discipline

by Ryan Mallory

You're not going to get a long and elaborate list of resolutions like last year, where I mapped out ten areas of trading and life that I wanted to do better. Instead you are going to get one major resolution that I need to practice more of in many areas of my life. 

And the Resolution that I speak of is:

DISCIPLINE

I don't consider myself as a person who is undisciplined, in fact I tend to think of myself as being very disciplined, particularly when it comes to managing my trades and positions while trading in the market. However, there are too many other areas of my life that lack the discipline that it is worth making it my sole resolution for the year. At year's end, I don't expect to give myself an A+, but I do seek after drastic improvement. 

The areas that I fell short in last year had everything to do with discipline. 

• Consistently Exercising
• Reading and further educating myself through books
• Avoid trading higher flier stocks with less than desirable setups
• Not spending enough time in devotion to my faith as I would've liked. 

It's not that I don't want to do these things, in fact I yearn for them. I enjoy them and get more out of these areas, than what I would otherwise haven gotten from the areas where I do show discipline.

So why don't I do it? 

Simply, I yield the decision making to an element other than myself and what I believe is right and necessary. 

(okay Ryan, who's forcing your hand on this then, if its not you!?!)

My own laziness. In spritual terms they call it the "flesh", in secular terms it's called a bad personality trait, behavior, syndrome, disorder, or anything else you can imagine. 

I would love to be in better shape, spend more time reading book after book, and being a man of complete discipline, but instead of making the hard choices in these areas, I can just as easily take the easy road. 

I truly believe that there are two elements to the decision making we engage in: one is the decision we WANT to make, and wish tha we'd make, the second element, is what we often yield to and that is the laziness, or for others, the anger, compulsiveness, or fear, greed, and anything that would be considered a less than desirable behavior. That is why we have regrets, why we think to ourselves, "Could've", "Should've", "Would've", because we didn't make the right decision and instead yielded to the wrong element of our lives. 

But my areas of desired discipline go beyond the stated sub-par performances of my resolutions from last year. Instead, it goes into areas of spending times with my wife and my son, upkeep in my personal life, organization, going to bed at a reasonable hour, and in the realm of trading it is being focused on the trade at hand, taking consistent and steady profits and not looking at what-if scenarios that likely will never become a reality. 

For SharePlanner, and its growth and development, it involves consistently providing content throughout each day that helps readers/users of the site grow in their own trading, and abilities, providing new and improved features, not taking my eye off the ball, and realizing that the most important element of SharePlanner is sticking to the core elements of transparency, honesty, and openness throughout the site, that fosters a user environment that is non-threatening, and inclusive to all trading types. 

In essence, the Main Thing...is to keep the main thing, the main thing. 

All this falls under the realm of discipline, and an area that I need in certain areas of my life, that often falls well short of even mediocrity. 

The best choice is often times the simplest choice, but it doesn't necessarily mean its the easiest choice. 

So here's to a DISCIPLINED and happy New Year!!!