Mindset and Trading Success

Most people know how to lose weight, so how can it be so difficult? We all know that if we eat a healthier diet, consume smaller portions, drink less alcohol, exercise more and reduced stress, we will lose weight. So how can it be so difficult to implement these changes over the long-term?

Mindset.

It's the same with trading.

Most traders know what to do, so how can it be so difficult to be profitable? We all know that we need to find an trading edge, develop a trading strategy, formulate a trading plan which gives us a positive expectancy over a large number of trades, and then follow that plan. So how can it be so difficult to implement this plan over the long-term?

Mindset.

You don’t need the latest diet, shake, indicator or tipster. It's tempting to be persuaded that improvement will come from the outside. From a diet shake or a special indicator. But we don't need anything extra from the outside, we don't need to buy more stuff.

We just need to do the work. Every day.

The voice that says:

“Oh well, I’ll just have another piece of chocolate”

is EXACTLY the same voice that says:

“Oh well, I’ll move my stop a bit further away” or

“It’s a bit of a random trade but I fancy a punt”.

It may sounds harsh (and I’ve had to admit this to myself more than once) but maybe we choose the chocolate over being leaner. We want the chocolate more than we want to be a healthy weight. It's easier to stay out of shape, shrug our shoulders and give up.

Or we choose to override our trading plan over being profitable. We want to be in that trade more than we want to be profitable. It's easier to be unprofitable, shrug our shoulders and give up.

That’s the essence of self-sabotage!

Choosing instant comfort over long-term goals.

So, when tempted to eat yet another piece of chocolate I can say to myself: “I choose health!”

Or, when tempted to open a random trade, I can say to myself: “I choose success!”

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