Psychological Framing and Non-Attachment

Every Tuesday Chuck releases a new Trader Tip video on YouTube. This week we will discuss how some of the most powerful concepts you can ever learn is psychological framing and non-attachment. Watch the Trader Tip Episode for more information! 

You can read the episode transcript below or watch the video that follows.
If you have any questions, please reach out to us. We look forward to being a continued part of your trading education!


"The quality of our life is the quality of our questions". That's from Tony Robbins. It is such a profound statement, because it's going to lead us into our discussion today about psychological framing and non-attachment. What is psychological framing? Psychological framing is the way that we frame a problem, or the way that we frame a solution. It is the way we think about it. It is the perspective that we have on that problem, and what psychological frames do is that the psychological frames that we choose, either empower us to make great decisions, or they disempower us, leaving us to feel anxious, fearful, and overwhelmed.

You hear it talked a lot about that psychology is the most important factor and it is, but most people don't understand people will blow this off like "ah that's bullshit, psychology is not that important". It is, but where psychology is really important is in little ways like this. Like how we frame a problem. Does the framing of the problem empower us to make great decisions and see lots of solutions? Or does it disempower us making us scared, and fearful and locked in on only one option?

The situation's around these two are the same, but the frames are very different. The awareness that we have the ability to choose our frames empowers us to make better decisions. Questions are one of the best ways to change your psychological frame. Some of the biggest value that I bring to clients is actually helping them get their psychological frames, right. To get their view of the problem set up in a way that empowers them, to bring out the best in them to bring out the best in their resources. Versus being locked in on one solution or one idea. This is universal.

People that work with me in trading, they know that we go through this concept called metamorphosis, and what a metamorphosis is, is it's a decision tree. It's basically identifying a series of strategies to give us great flexibility to be able to change the current issue, to be able to solve the current problem. We take this idea of metamorphosis and trading and we bring it into real life, and we do the same thing. We create decision trees; we create many options.

I've said this before, but I'll review it today. The conscious mind can hold seven bits of information, plus or minus two to four. If you're over 11, you either have memorization strategies, or you're elite, but under stress, the amount of information we can hold starts to disintegrate and deteriorate, and it goes from seven to five to three, and when we're under enormous stress, it's one. We focus on one thing all the time, and it's usually in our head. Our head just goes in an endless loop. When we frame things, it empowers us to think about more than one option or one choice.

One of the exercises I do all the time that was taught to me by a coach is 21 ways. What's 21 ways that I could. Let's just say that you were making 150,000 a year and you wanted to go to 200,000. Well, what's 21 ways that I can make an additional $50,000 this year? Most people, they have a job to make 150,000 And they're like, well, I could ask for a raise, but if he says no, I'm screwed. Maybe I have to go get another job. I don't really want to do that. See how limiting that is? I'm setting myself up where I see really no way I can win. My boss is not likely gonna give me a $50,000 raise and I really don't want to switch jobs. I'm done. I'm angry, I'm bitter, yada yada yada, but if I reframe it, what's 21 ways I can make $50,000 this year and there is no wrong answer. Maybe it's that I start a side business. Maybe it's I take a home equity loan on my house and I use it to buy rental property or fund a trading account. Maybe it's I start an Online Marketing business, maybe it's I sell my boat, and you start going through and you start realizing there's many different ways to get what you want.

We're just wrapping up today, our Five Pillars of Infinite Wealth class and the big part of the whole class was just constantly teaching people different frames, to think about money in different ways. I had a woman in one of my classes her and her husband, their dream was to get a lake house, and in their minds they are thinking they need a million dollars to get the lake house, and they're at least five years away. They have $500,000 saved up. They're at least five years away from being able to get the full million. She's 57, and she's thinking I'll be 62, and who knows if we'll event want to house it. This is the frame she's living in. I pushed back on her. I said, well, let's reframe it. How could we reframe it? What could you do besides buy the house? What have you learned that helps you earn money in different ways and what you were aware of? Well, she started to realize, well, I could take $500,000, and I could invest it in this strategy that makes 10% a year or this strategy that makes 15% a year. Let's just say makes 15% a year that's $75,000. Well, if it makes $75,000, well, then I have 6250 a month to go take, I can take my 75,000 divided by 12, that's 6250 a month, and I can go rent a lake house for $6,250 a month for the year, and she was blown away. She actually got quite emotional, because she started to realize that the house was actually much, much closer than she ever thought. She was thinking that it was going to be really hard, it was going to be really long, but by reframing the question, she started to realize that she could have the house within six months, by next summer for sure, and she got excited. That's the power of reframing.

One key element to be able to reframe our issues is to understand and embrace the concept of non-attachment. Non-attachment is the ability to let go, and to accept what is. We oftentimes get in our mind, that things have to happen in a certain way, and when they don't happen in the way that we expect, we get really angry, we get really anxious, we get upset, and we cannot let go of the outcome that we thought we were going to get, we cannot let go of the thing that is in our life or the person that's in our life. When we become non-attached, we let it go. We let go of misperceptions, we let go of our stories, we let go of our outcomes, we let go of people, we let go of relationships, we let go of goals that did not go as we expected.

I did a Facebook Live last night where I was actually talking about this book right here. This is called The Abundance Book by John Randolph Price, and it's one of the best books I've ever read, and it's about the abundance of money and understanding the mindset around abundance, and if you really dig into it, a key element of abundance is non-attachment. Because when we decide that money has to come to us in a very specific way we become attached to that outcome. Just think of how many people in the last two years believed that they were going to get rich, their ticket to being rich was in crypto, and it took off, and they're like, Yeah, I finally made it, and then it crashed, and so many of the people give all the money back because they are attached to the outcome. They're attached to the fact that crypto is the only way I'm ever going to be rich. When it turns around, getting out of crypto is letting go of their dream, and this is very painful for them. They won't get out and they watch it go all the way back to where it came from.

One of the things I talked about the Facebook Live yesterday is the less attached we are to our outcomes, the closer we become to God. The closer we become to God the more abundance we have in our life. The more we believe that God is the source of our abundance, not things not our job, not our paycheck not crypto. When we let go of that and realize that God is a source of abundance that actually brings us closer to God, and by bringing us closer to God we actually receive even more abundance, it sets a positive loop, but to get into this positive loop, we have to let go. To reframe.

Let's step back a second. With non-attachment, it requires honesty and truth. We got to be truthful about what's going on. We can't be colored by our beliefs or colored by our expectations; we have to see things as they are. Without acceptance of the way that things are, we cannot change, we are stuck. We are attached, we're stuck. Non-attachment requires trust that God has a plan for you, especially when things appear bad, because we don't know the lesson, and the things that come our way. Non-attachment allows us to psychologically reframe our problems, and when we do that, we get to see them from a different and empowering perspective. All kinds of options that we were unaware of suddenly start to show up.

I learned this concept of non-attachment from Dr. Libby Adams and her 28-day course, which I highly recommend, but this idea of non-attachment is critical. You cannot be a great trader and have major attachment issues, because you'll never get out. You'll be attached to your ideas, a lot of academics struggle in trading, because they attach to their ideas, because the most important thing for them is not to make money. It is to be right. It is to be right, and so they're attached to being right. They'll have a losing trade; they can't let it go. Because letting it go would mean they were wrong, that they failed. They can't handle that.

Okay, so non-attachment is key. Being honest, allows us to be non-attached, and when we're not attached, we can reframe in ways that the possibilities explode. When you get in this place, money comes on demand, and I know this is hard to believe, but it comes on demand because God is looking after you. There are infinite possibilities all around you, and if you just get in sync with them, you can find not just a solution, but many, many solutions to your issues. This is one of the most powerful concepts you can ever learn. If you can become aware of this and consistently implement it, your life will explode. I hope you found this incredibly valuable because it is valuable. Stay tuned every Tuesday when I come to you with another webinar, another Trader Tip Tuesday like today where I share insights and advice with you to help you take your performance to an elite level. God bless and have a great week. I'll see you next week. Bye.

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