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Visualise and Be Motivated

cat lion mirrorFirst, visualise the bad habits that you had. How do you feel? Terrible? Fuel with regrets? Uncomfortable? Now, make a note of the negative emotions and remind yourself how badly you want to get away from it.

Next, visualise the new but good habits that you intent to acquire. Again, how do you feel about it? Excited? Energised? Happy? If so, make a note of the positive emotions and compare it with the negative ones.

With that, do you feel motivated to change? I hope the answer is yes. And make sure to apply the same technique frequently to remind yourself that you really want to change.

Embracing Risk

While we tend to focus solely on building our skill sets or expanding our knowledge, the greatest advancement and learning most often comes from action, experience, and taking risk. And our regrets in life reflect this. According to Gilbert, studies show that “in the long run, people of every age and in every walk of life seem to regret not having done things much more than they regret things they did.”

To improve at anything, we must at some point push ourselves outside our comfort zone.

Dealing With Losses

A few quick caveats:

  1. There is no place for denial in successful investing.
  2. Don’t blame your losses on bad luck or outside manipulators.  Accept the responsibility yourself.
  3. Don’t be dependent upon trading for all your fulfillment and happiness.
  4. Focus on opportunities, not on regrets.
  5. Proper risk control and discipline is non-negotiable for every trade everyday.
  6. Revenge trading – trying to make back a loss – carries with it far too much emotion and is always costly.
  7. Poor money management skills are the number one reason that novice traders wash out.
  8. Learn to recognize your impulsive state of mind and take action to stop it.

Even the best traders in the world book small losses on a regular basis.  If you manage your emotions with consistency and if you strive for a disciplined trading mindset, then you should have no problem surviving a string of bad trades and showing profits at the end of the year.