{"id":25600,"date":"2013-03-28T17:55:31","date_gmt":"2013-03-28T21:55:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/?p=25600"},"modified":"2013-03-28T17:55:31","modified_gmt":"2013-03-28T21:55:31","slug":"how-happy-should-you-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/how-happy-should-you-be","title":{"rendered":"How happy should you be?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Should we seek to be happy all-the-time as a trader? No, says the research.<\/p>\n<p>Eric Barker, at his <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bakadesuyo.com\/2013\/03\/happy-time\/\">Barking Up the Wrong Tree<\/a> blog, asks a question:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>\u201cShould we try to be happy all the time?\u201d <\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It\u2019s a good question and he answers it with one word: no. \u00a0Now, he isn\u2019t knocking happiness. He\u2019s only pointing that context matters and that, as he quotes from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/1455515159\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=1455515159&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=spacforrent-20\"><em>Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing<\/em><\/a> by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman, \u201cWhat\u2019s good for your well-being is not necessarily going to be effective in a competitive context.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a key takeaway (once again from <em>Top Dog<\/em>):<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>\u201cWhen the object is to compete, positive psychology becomes a handicap. Its Panglossian ban on negative thought denies the value of critical thinking about past performance, which is necessary in order to learn from one\u2019s mistakes and alter strategy going forward.\u201d<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Apparently it&#8217;s better to be an 8 on a happiness scale from 1-10 and not a 10.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>When individuals complete happiness surveys that use a one to ten scale, those scoring around an eight often tend to fare the best in achievement. Why might the eights of the world outperform their friends and neighbors who are nines or tens? It could be that eights benefit from the creativity and energy of happiness, but also maintain a touch of worry that helps to motivate them\u2026\u00a0<\/strong>Similar results can be found in an analysis of a huge sample by Shigehiro Oishi, who analyzed the satisfaction scores of over 100,000 respondents from all over the world.\u00a0<strong>Those who scored well on happiness \u2013 the sevens, eights, and nines on a ten-point scale \u2013 had higher incomes and more advanced educations than both the tens and those who were unhappy.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So if you are not happy all-the-time as a trader this may not be best for your mental health but it may be for your P&amp;L.<br \/>\nMike Bellafiore<br \/>\n<em><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/The-Playbook-Inside-Professional-Trader\/dp\/0132937646\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1362680637&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=the+playbook+mike+bellafiore\">The PlayBook<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/One-Good-Trade-Competitive-Proprietary\/dp\/0470529407\/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1362681466&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=one+good+trade\">One Good Trade<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/mikebellafiore\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/twitter-badges.s3.amazonaws.com\/follow_me-c.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Should we seek to be happy all-the-time as a trader? No, says the research. Eric Barker, at his Barking Up the Wrong Tree blog, asks a question: \u201cShould we try to be happy all the time?\u201d It\u2019s a good question and he answers it with one word: no. \u00a0Now, he isn\u2019t knocking happiness. He\u2019s only pointing that context matters and &#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/how-happy-should-you-be\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2444,2449,4703,2448,2451,4706,4707,1718,653,2445,1989,4712,4690,1888,207],"class_list":["post-25600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mike-bellafiore-bellas-blogs","tag-daytrading","tag-how-to-be-a-day-trader","tag-learn-trading","tag-prop-trade","tag-stock-market-course","tag-stock-trading-education","tag-stock-training","tag-the-playbook","tag-trader-training","tag-trading-careers","tag-trading-course","tag-trading-courses","tag-trading-education","tag-trading-school","tag-trading-stocks","no-post-thumbnail"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How happy should you be? | SMB Training<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/how-happy-should-you-be\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How happy should you be? | SMB Training\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Should we seek to be happy all-the-time as a trader? No, says the research. Eric Barker, at his Barking Up the Wrong Tree blog, asks a question: \u201cShould we try to be happy all the time?\u201d It\u2019s a good question and he answers it with one word: no. \u00a0Now, he isn\u2019t knocking happiness. He\u2019s only pointing that context matters and ... 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