Diana Clement: Reprogramming yourself for success

We're not participating in the recession," said a sign I saw recently. It's a mantra that many investors ought to adopt.

Too many investors have a cup half-empty mentality in the current economic environment.

Yet recessions should to be leveraged, shouldn't they? Shares and funds are at their cheapest for years. And investment property is heading that way.

Psychology, not knowledge, is the most difficult skill for an investor to pick up - yet far more important for success. Sadly many people's brains are programmed to think the worst. Instead of opportunity they see Armageddon.

Michael Yardney, author, property mentor and columnist in NZ Property Investor says a successful person will see an opportunity where the average person sees an obstacle.

"What happens to you in the outside world is a reflection of your inner world," says Yardney who writes about the psychology of wealth. "If you feel good about yourself and look for opportunities you will find them."

One big problem with the human psyche, says Yardney, is that markets are cyclical, but our thinking is linear. As a result we think in a boom that the market will continue rising and in a recession that things will continue getting worse. But the markets don't work that way.

One of the reasons we psyche ourselves into negative habits is that neurons in the brain are wired together by behaviour, which is why it can be so difficult for some people to give up doing things that were programmed during childhood.

We're all hard-wired from a young age. So negative thinking may be the result of events that happened even before you started school. But that's not to say we can't rewire and reprogramme our brains one neuron at a time. There are many ways to do it. Everything from meditation to making positive affirmations works, providing you persevere.

A lot of people view this stuff as mumbo jumbo or "pop psychology". But the reality is all of these brain reprogramming techniques can produce tangible results if you believe in them:

Make a conscious decision to change behaviour: It's your choice whether you succeed as an investor and anyone can choose to discard limiting beliefs and actions - providing, that is, that you're not suffering an undiagnosed or untreated mental illness.

Affirmations: This is all about talking yourself into a positive mental attitude. If the voices in your head are full of worry or defeat, you'll be anxious or easily defeated. By repeating positive affirmations, you reprogramme your brain into successful behaviour. The theory is that your thoughts control your actions and like attracts like. So if you can have successful thoughts, your actions will follow.

Meditation: This involves focusing on an object, word, phrase, or even the coming and going of the breath. Practised successfully, meditation is the gateway to your subconscious brain. Many people have used meditation to overcome self-defeating behaviours, to reduce tension, anxiety, and stress, and to increase self-understanding and acceptance. It's particularly good for people who succumb to the negative voice inside them.

Meditation doesn't need to be difficult. There's no need to sit in the lotus position or lock yourself away for hours on end. Five or 10 minutes a day deep breathing in a quiet corner of the house is enough for some people. Plenty of successful business people do just this.

Visualisation: Successful sports people often practise visualisation - imagining themselves winning races. Likewise many investors I have met believe in visualising themselves as successful or visualise the objects or lifestyles they desire through investing.

Some keep "dream boards" above their beds, on the fridge or even the inside of the toilet door so that they are reminded regularly of their goals. The theory is that visualisation helps stimulate both sides of the brain, not just one. The creative right side of the brain that may not be used in "logical" investing decisions comes into play.

Reflection: At the end of each day and week as well as tallying your budget or reviewing your investments as you may do, it's worth reflecting on what you've done well and what you could have done better. Don't beat yourself up. Just note where success comes from and seek more.

Get help: Like a badly scratched record some people just can't move forward. They continually go back over the same old ground and never get ahead in life - financially or personally.

If you can't do it yourself then there's an army of professionals out there to help, ranging from coaches and mentors to psychologists and psychotherapists. Which ones you need to employ may depend on what's holding you back.

Coaches and mentors often don't have formal training - so they may not deal well with helping people overcome personality and mental disorders. They will, however, help you set goals and keep you honest to your intentions.

Psychotherapists and psychologists do many years of training and will help people uncover and overcome the more deep-seated mental barriers to investing. Few psychological barriers to investing are too great to overcome.

It's estimated that up to one in five people in New Zealand suffer depression at some point in their lifetimes. This disease can be devastating for personal finances - especially if someone is unable to work for a period as a result.

I was interested recently when I chanced upon a blog that specialised in attention deficit disorder and investing.

I've since seen personal finance information online aimed at people with depression, bi-polar disorder and other illnesses - although self-help is unlikely to be sufficient in these instances. If mental illness is holding someone back from investing, they need professional help.

Ditch your old friends: It may sound harsh, but people who think negatively can be a real hindrance to financial success. The old adage success breeds success is true.

Rodney-based property investor Toby Yorke has used virtually all of the methods above during his journey from squaddie to full-time property investor and business owner.

Yorke says he "self-sabotaged" in the early days of his investing career, which started in the 1990s, by listening to "psychobabble" that told him he was going to stuff up.

His solution was to change his friends, attend seminars, listen to motivational tapes and CDs, do visualisations and affirmations, and follow the teachings in John Kehoe's book Mind Power. Even now that he's a full-time investor and owns several cash-flow businesses, Yorke still attends workshops and seminars to keep up the successful mindset.

"I try to hang out with and adopt the mind set of people who are doing it [investing successfully]."

He also uses neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) techniques, which are designed to change the patterns of mental and emotional behaviour. In the present economic conditions people who can reprogramme themselves for success will see opportunities in the stock markets, in property and in business.

Those who are stuck in recession depression will wait until the markets recover before starting to invest again - by which time the "bargains of the century", as some investments are being labelled today, will be gone.

As Yardney says, some people will survive and others will thrive in this market. The "survivors" are picking up their bats and balls and going home. Those who do prosper will be the ones whose brains are programmed to win, not whinge.