I was reading Jared Tendler’s book, The Mental Game of Trading, which, first of all is an outstanding book and you should read it. Even if you’re not a trader, there are some very practical lessons inside. But beware: that book provides a framework for self-improvement that is not easy. Evaluating oneself and improving weaknesses is not an easy process.
One of the pieces of his process is called The Inchworm Concept. The idea is this: you have a spectrum of performance (or discipline, or decision-making, or basically any other personal attribute) along which you operate. He likes to divide it into 3 segments - A, B, and C - to keep things simple. And I agree.
Along this spectrum, you have the segment where you perform (or behave, or love others, or manage yourself) best; then the middle segment where you’re making some simple mistakes but you still have your priorities in sight; then the rear segment where basically you’re doing everything as wrongly and horribly as you know how. At all times, we functionally fall into one of these three segments of performance. You’re either completely sucking and missing all of your priorities, or you’re In The Zone, or you’re somewhere in between.
This can apply to traders, poker players, professional athletes (all of whom Mr. Tendler has worked with), or even the average person living his or her daily life. Imagine a typical week in your life. Maybe during your best weeks, you feel unstoppable. You happily engage with your work life, you get a few things done around the house, you get lots of sleep, and you call your mother. That sounds like a great week. That’s your A-game.
Then the following week, you show up late to work once. And you neglect the dishes for a couple days, and you forget to call your mother. This is your B-game. Your life isn’t falling apart, but you know you could be doing better.
And then the following week, you’re just a mess. Your boss is angry because you forgot to call a client back. You forgot your brother’s birthday. The house is a mess, and you’re making terrible decisions in your personal life. This is your C-game, and you know it. Your life feels dark and lonely, and all you see around you is damage from your lack of self-control and accountability.
Now the idea of Mr. Tendler’s book, and the Inchworm Concept, is to actively focus on removing your C-game. To suck less. You remove the worst parts of you, and then over time you have less variance in your behavior. And therefore you have less variance in your results. By moving the rear-end of your processes and behaviors forward, you make yourself more consistent and more reliable - and you open up space for your A-game to move forward. Beautiful concept, isn’t it? An inchworm contracts his midsection to scoot his rear end forward - and then he is free to move ahead. And so can you.
Your goal is to make fewer awful decisions - to improve your process so that fewer bad outcomes are possible. And that there is the key word: process. In order to see the Inchworm effect in your life, you must have a process for self-evaluation and a system by which you improve. Hint: journaling is a great place (maybe the place) to start. Like I said, this isn’t easy. Self-evaluation and systematic self-improvement requires more than 5-minute wistfulness. It requires you to rule and regulate yourself. But more importantly, it requires you to look deep into yourself to figure out why you actually suck when you do.
There are illusions, biases, traumas, fears, and triggers for anger inside all of us; there are triggers towards overconfidence and underconfidence. More often than not, these are what’s behind our C-game (or even our B-game). If everything you do sucks, it’s because something in your mental framework is distorted. It’s because you have been fooled into performing worse by something unresolved inside you. Maybe you’re afraid of making mistakes, so you avoid the commitment of making decisions. Maybe you’re angry at your mother, so you lose your ability to slow down and evaluate things. Maybe you’re hung up on some bad thing that happened to you as a child, and you don’t realize that something has triggered it back into your conscious mind. Or maybe you’re just biased towards a certain outcome in something you’re doing, and you’re completely ignoring all contradictory evidence. These, among infinite other issues, might be problems for you. And by problems for you, I mean problems for your decision making processes. Because that’s ultimately what matters. How you make decisions.
Some folks have a system for journaling that I find wise: anytime you fall into your C-game, journal about what you were thinking, doing, feeling when you slipped. This, over time, can show you patterns inside you that you weren’t aware of. It can help you dig into the things that trigger you to suck. And only once you identify these things can you begin to address them.
As a trader, I know my own weaknesses are: fear of being wrong; fear of not achieving my goals; fear of missing out; anger at the irrationality of the market; lack of confidence when things don’t go my way; the illusion of control in thinking I know what the market is about to do; among other things. If you think about it, all of these issues apply to daily life too. Replace “market” with “people and my family and the world”, and maybe you’ve got the same issues I’ve got.
So what must I do?
I must actively analyze myself when (or shortly after) I’m at my worst. And figure out why I was there - what put me there. What illusions, biases, emotions, or weaknesses were at work? And then, only once I’ve precisely identified the issue, can I begin to think about it, talk it through with someone, journal about it, or otherwise face it and address it. And then, as I repeat this process, I begin to understand my own triggers and slips better. And I can face them in real time and keep them from arresting me. I can slowly but surely remove pieces of my C-game and, from there, make progress forward.
I strongly recommend reading some of Jared Tendler’s books. And I even strongly-er recommend producing for yourself a system of self-evaluation. Seeing yourself slip from good to bad decision-making in real time is an incredibly valuable tool. It allows you to apply the brakes, determine the trigger, and take a step back before making any further moves.
I obviously have barely scratched the surface on such deep and personal concepts here. However I hope this piece has helped you see the potential your decision-making has to improve. Consistency and improvement in your day-to-day decision-making can really take your life to a new level. Suck a bit less and you’ll have more room to move forward.
“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” -James Clear
Great to hear the book and the concept impacted you so much!