[MrPaul]

A good friend of mine, one of the most intelligent individuals I know helped me with some issues I recently had with my trading. He had me try what he called a "Thought Progression Exercise". You just apply it to anything you wish to really contemplate with the end result being an idea of what you can do to achieve something you wish to have. It only seems to work if you actually intellectualize on the questions and not just read them haphazardly. I figured a post on the subject might help somebody out.

Here is an example using "consistency" as it pertains to trading.

What is consistency? More winners than losers? More losers than winners with winners being much larger than losers? For how long? A week? A month? A year? Ten years? Under all market conditions? What exactly is consistency?

Is consistency successful trading? Under all market conditions? What does trading success mean to you? Is your view short or long term? How is it measured? Against another job? Another trader? A standard of living? Will this ever change?

What goals can you form from the answers to these questions?

How are you going to achieve these goals?

When will you start?