I’ve always been a fan of the ready, fire, aim approach. This gets me out of the planning stage and into the actual implementation of what I want to do. Often times it turns out that what I had originally thought about the situation was not the case and I had to change my tactic. For example, instead of sitting around and thinking of what to write about – day dreaming –  i often just start writing. The words flow, and they might not be the best written words, but who cares, it’s just a draft. The aim portion is where all the refining can take place.
I’m not saying that planning does not have its place, in fact, I think that planning is part of the fire step. Just don’t plan too in-depth or you might be turned off and not even complete the task at hand. This brings to mind an article I’ve read in The Economist called “Fail often, fail well”; very interesting to see some of the top firms out there like Bain & Company using the same approach to advise clients.
Learning from one’s mistakes is key, afraid of investing in stocks – why not buy just a few and give it a shot? If you fail, the downside is limited. By putting less at risk in the action portion, you can actually improve your situation the next time around. The big black box high frequency trading machines that many Wall Street firms use just the same sort of approach, at least the way I would do it, is to use a continuous algorithm that buys small share blocks, to figure out the direction of the stock and then buy/sell stock accordingly to where the algorithm is telling it to go; learning along the way.
I sometimes use this technique when playing poker (good thing this is an anonymous blog ; in order find out the strengths of my competition, I will play small amounts just to see how they play hands and to see how they disguise their bluffs. It’s much cheaper to learn in that manner, and win big when it really counts with all my chips in the pot.
So my advice is this, go for it - not all the chips in – but just enough to move forward in your approach, you can adjust along the way.

Building a new habit has always been hard for me. I always start off with great enthusiasm, followed by forgetting one day, then the next, and soon enough I’m back to square one.

I think I’ve found my solution. Google Calendar. Yep, I am going to automate my goals and habits in a clear way on the one device that I always look at, my phone. So far, it’s helped me recite my affirmations in the morning for the past two weeks (testing this affirmation thing out and I’ve been able to regularly take my vitamins in the afternoon (which I always forget to do).

I’ve even put in the regular updating of my Networth, so fingers crossed, I will provide regular updates from now on

Anyway, here’s to automating your habits.