“Winning is a habit. Unfortunately so is losing.” ~ Vince Lombardi
It’s been said that trading is simple … but not easy. I’ve even been known to say that but today as I was out walking this thought hit me. “Is that just an excuse? What if we made it easy?”
Ok, I know … that got you going. Yes trading is a complex skill and yes there is a lot to learn. Yes, it provokes our emotions and can make us do dumb things and yes all that can make it somewhat difficult … but hear me out. There are so many things around us today that at one point in time people would have thought were impossible. Can you imagine what the original settlers would have thought if someone said, “Hey you know, one day we’ll all be sitting around in comfort watching television on our smartphones”? Now that would have been a look I’d love to have seen. At that point, even the ease of running water and electric heat seemed a bit far fetched nevermind television on a smartphone.
So what’s my point? My point is that everything seems hard or impossible or absurd, until it’s done and then we forget what life was like before we had the ease of it. So why not take that approach to our trading? What in your life is easy now but was once hard? Walking? Definitely but I bet you can’t remember what it was like before you could walk. Driving? For sure and yet somehow now we jump behind the wheel without a second thought.
What is it about those things that now make them seem so easy? The steps we have to take are the same, the things we have to think about are still there. The dangers if we mess up are real … and if you don’t think so, just ask anyone who’s stepped off a curb into traffic or been injured in a car accident. Those dangers are far more real than losing some money on a failed trade.
The difference with them is that we’ve put in the time and effort to turn the actions we must do into habits. Most of us worked with a teacher, mentor or coach to help us build our skills along the way and through consistent practice, we’ve essentially automated those complex skills to the point that we can now do them with ease.
Today’s walk inspired me change my phrase to “Trading is Simple AND it’s Easy!!” To focus on the process, to create success habits to turn what may now appear difficult into something easy … something habitual.
In that spirit I offered a challenge to the members that I coach … to set aside all disbelief and judgement … to focus on building and sustaining habits for their success … to commit to the process of making their trading easy and to let the results of their work show in an ever increasing p&l.
My question to you is “What are your success habits? Are you focused on building and sustaining them?” Drop me a comment and let me know, I’d love to find out.
