Think Like a Black Belt on Traders Nation

Welcome back, you are tuned into Traders Nation. My pleasure to have back with us once again Jim Bouchard, how to think like a black belt. Jim, welcome back to Traders Nation, how are you today?

I'm doing great, thanks for having me.

Good, good. Hey Jim, listen, in times where some people may feel powerless, and they really, really do, unemployment, not knowing where the next meal is going to come from, concerns, maybe they are employed and they're just nervous, they're not knowing if they're going to get the axe. Right? By week's end or whatever. How can one turn that around, bring power, Jim, power back into their lives and not feel like they're at the mercy of somebody else?

Well, you know, Curt, neither one of us are known for being exactly politically correct, right? Right. So here we go.

Hit me, Jim.

Wha! You know, no matter how tough it gets, as long as you're breathing, you got a shot, right? Yeah. The thing is, it all starts with a decision. Knock down 7 times, get up 8 is an old adage from martial arts. It's true. You've been there. I've been there. Most of the people that are talking about this, we've been there. We're not just singing platitudes. We're not preaching from the mountain. We've been down in the valley, too. There it is. You've got to pull up your pants. You've got to turn your hat around. You've got to get to work. It's not easy. Getting to black belt is simple. It's not easy. It starts with a decision. You have to make the decision that you're going to do what it takes to get yourself back on your feet. Now that requires a lot of tough decisions. Some people don't want to look at some of these decisions. I was talking to somebody recently who lost a job and was really facing moving a family. That's not an easy thing to do. It really, really isn't. But when you sit down at the end of the day, you have to say, "Hey, is that really right now what's best for me and my family to get up and move?" In that case, it probably was. It's not always, but you can't sit around waiting for solutions or waiting for someone to come and save you.

So if someone is hit with challenges, they really need to confront the realities, don't they? Sit down and roadmap themselves to recovery, right?

Absolutely. I suppose people have written a book, but I have not seen a book that says that life is supposed to be easy or things are supposed to be handed to us. These are challenging times. One thing I'd say too is right now there are a lot more people that are facing the proposition of maybe being laid off or downsized and whatnot. There's more to come. Don't wait around for the axe to fall. Right now get yourself in gear. Pull your pants up, turn your hat around and get to work. That means acquiring new skills, expanding the skill set that you have, networking to find out where your next job is going to be or your next opportunity. Hey, you might find that you're going to make the move before the axe falls and it's going to be something better for you.

Yeah, but the government can't take care of us, Jim. Government's gonna put gas in our tank, gold in our pockets. Hey, they're gonna, they're gonna, you know, pay our mortgage for us. Why should we pull up our own bootstraps and take responsibility for ourselves when the government's gonna do it for us, Jim?

You know, once again, that's one of the benefits of survival, I suppose. But haven't you heard that before? I mean, we've heard this before. Yeah, this isn't new. I mean, a lot of folks— I shouldn't say anyone, but a lot of folks are running around right now saying, oh, you know, this is different, this is this is something new. No, it's not. We've heard this before. We've been in this situation before. In fact, some folks have had it worse. I was talking to somebody recently, someone who had lived through the Depression. They're kind of laughing at this. They say, "Hey, we've got it real tough. You've still got your cable TV. You've still got your cell phone, right?" Yeah, that's exactly right.

My dad lived through the Depression. He's still alive with us. He's 89 years old. Before the whole crash kind of hit, my dad says to me, "Jim," he says, "I'm going to take some money out of the bank." Right? And he saw it. Okay, all right, Dad, all right. We're okay, right? I'm going to take some money out of the bank. And sure enough, the people that lived and survived from that Depression, still alive today, they know it. They're still stung by it. I don't know, are we going to come out of this with that same type of level of sting to where we now find discipline? Isn't that what it takes, Jim? It takes discipline to pull our own bootstraps up and to find our own way out of that hole.

Exactly. My first book, Dynamic Components of Personal Power, when people ask me, "What's the most important component?" It's discipline. Discipline is a decision. Absolutely, it's a decision. We can make it more complicated, but we don't have to. You have to decide you're going to do that. Let's face it, and again, I'm not preaching from a mountain. I've done it. I've made the mistakes and I've paid for it. We were not very disciplined in our generation. We really bought into the sales pitch for that easy credit thing. We got into it over our heads and we're paying for it now. But the trick is, again, it doesn't matter where we were. What matters is what resources we have here and now. I should say I'm not diminishing. People's hardships either. Even though we live in a much different time and we have different circumstances and conditions than the people did in the Depression, you know, there's more fail-safes right now. But still, when you're facing the prospect of losing your house, that's serious business.

It was so bad during the Depression that when you had to use the car, you would first start the car with kerosene because it was cheaper than the 4-cent gas or whatever the cost of it was. To use just to start the car, let alone drive it anywhere. Unbelievable.

Right. I so admire that. There have been some folks that have really hit hard times and have made some adjustments. I was watching a story about some folks that really just scrambled through their personal downsizing, sold the house, or they had just lost the house and they were able to put enough cash to get a camper or something, and then they hit the road. I'll tell you what, more power to them because they're out there looking for work now. They made the adjustments. It's not easy, but they made the adjustments they needed to take care of their family. But thank goodness some of these folks have nice campers instead of the tin shacks that people lived in in the disaster.

Bottom line is, folks, bottom line is don't wait for the government to do anything for you. Good luck. They're still trying to rebuild Katrina. That should be a good example. Don't wait for the government. Pull up your own bootstraps. Get disciplined. Now let's talk about discipline. You need discipline. You need focus. Motivation if you're going to find excellence, at least in a recovery.

Sounds like you read the book.

I've done my research. I have read it, Jim. It's an excellent book, by the way. Isn't that true? Focus and motivation. You can have discipline, but you need to be focused where you're going and the motivation to get you there, Jim.

Exactly. Make a plan. Most of all, I know this is tough. Again, I've been there. When I learned about gratitude, is when I was in my deepest moments of poverty. Gratitude is the key to getting all this stuff in motion. It's a matter of sitting down. Again, I'm not talking about gratitude as a platitude. I'm not the nicey-nicey motivational guy.

No rah-rah here, Jim.

Exactly. What it is is just sitting down and taking a good hard look at the resources you have emotionally, spiritually, and materially. That's what you have to work with right now and that's what's going to get you out of the mess. Even though it may be scarce, if you just take a look at it and be thankful for what you do have, particularly your skills, your talents, your abilities, nobody can take those away from you. That may be all you have to get started again.

Let's talk about your program, Black Belt Mindset. Does it help others to achieve these new levels of performance, success personally and maybe even professionally?

Oh, absolutely professionally. Absolutely. Definitely. I am doing a lot of speaking right now for conferences and corporations and whatnot. The whole idea is this: if everybody in your organization thinks like a black belt, if everybody is focused on optimum performance for themselves first, and then as part of the organization, then the organization becomes more productive and ultimately more profitable. But really what we are talking about is each individual in the organization focused on personal success. And let's adjust that as well because part of the reason we're in this problem is success models became who had the McMansion or the $8 million yacht. Success is having enough. It's taking care of yourself, having enough emotionally, spiritually, and materially. Now that can be the multimillion-dollar yacht. That's fine. If that's what you want, I won't judge it.

But it doesn't need to be.

What it needs to be is enough to make you happy, enough to give you a sense of security. Everything else is gravy and we really lost sight of that. Anyway, it's about getting people to get back and focus on those basic core values that we seem to have lost in our culture.

I like that.

The big one, and I know we use dirty language when we're talking together, is personal responsibility. Sure.

We've got about a minute left. How do you take somebody that's a white belt and turn them into a black belt?

You just hit it right on the head. We've got to start with discipline. The secret of the martial arts, the secret to success in life as well, is discipline. To me is practice. We've got to develop a game plan. We've got to decide that we're going to do what it takes to get there. That's the discipline part. Then every day we've got to get up, pull up those pants, turn the hat around and practice it. That's the big secret.

Every day. Jim Bouchard is with us today. How to think like a black belt. How to think like a black belt. Jim, where can we find you at?

You can find me at JimBouchard.org. That's J-I-M. B-O-U-C-H-A-R-D dot org. And of course you can find me on the Curt Schettler Show.

Nice. Right here on Traders Nation. JimBouchard.org. Jim Bouchard.org. Jim, thanks for your time today. Appreciate it. We'll be right back.