"There is no thought in my mind but it quickly tends to convert itself into a power and organizes a huge instrumentality of means." Ralph Waldo Emerson

Did you make resolutions for this new year? Did you set goals for your trading? For your finances? For self-improvement? For other aspects of your life?

I hope so. Without goals, without a target, we tend to wander through life drift on our good or bad fortunes. The fact that we really do have control over the direction of our life is too often overlooked. We are the authors of our own lives, the script writers of our trading. By setting goals we set a course.

The goal sets up a tension between where we are and where we want to be. The two must come together. Imagine a strong rubber band around your two hands. As you pull them apart, you feel the tension between the two positions. Let your left hand represent your current situation and your right hand represent your goal, the circumstances as you want them to be. Feel the pressure pulling the two hands together. To relieve and resolve this pressure, you can either move your left hand over to your right hand or move your right hand back to your left hand. You can take action to change your current circumstances and achieve your desire, or you can alter your dream to comply with the current situation.