Many of us get into trading because we see it as the perfect side hustle. But then, for some reason, we give up because its “not working”. This post explores a common cycle many of us repeat, a cycle that stops us from achieving our dreams. Sounds good? Please read on.
Does this Sound Familiar?
You’re on your phone, searching for a side hustle.
One day it’s drop shipping; the next, it’s blogging. You always dive in, full of hope and excitement, but before long, you’re back to searching for the next big thing. Nothing ever seems to stick. You never find success.
If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Many of us been have there, trying one promising idea after another without much success.
Why Does this Happen?
In my experience, it’s always exciting to scheme, tell people about your plans and visualize all your dreams coming true… until we have to take action.
Getting excited and planning is easy, taking action is not. Execution and sticking with plans are where people struggle.
While looking into this, I’ve found that this “intention vs execution problem” is called the intention-behavior gap. It means the disconnect between a person’s good intentions and their actual actions. It explains why we often fail to follow through on our plans, even when we are genuinely motivated to do so.
How do We Overcome this?
The obvious answer is to close the gap between your intentions and your actions, meaning you have to make a plan and start executing that plan to the best of your ability. Easier said than done, but it is possible.
This is where discipline, or more accurately, self-discipline comes in. Self-discipline is widely considered a skill. The good thing is that skills can be developed.
Self-discipline will help you control your feelings, impulses and actions. This, in turn, will help you pursue your goals and dreams. It’s doing the things you don’t want to do, even when you don’t feel like doing them.
Back to Trading:
The norm is to jump into trading after watching a couple of trading videos, reading about some strategy online, finding a mentorship, buying signals, buying a course, etc. This almost always leads to a disaster because of not being properly prepared for what trading truly requires.
Now, imagine you do proper research into what trading really is about, and finding out that it is not as easy as many people make it out to be. So you decide to tackle trading the right way from the start.
You do the following:
- You know success might not come overnight. Yet, you know it will come, over time, if you take the right actions.
- You decide to invest in your trading education.
- You take your time to find what kind strategy best fits you.
- You develop routines for everything around your trading.
- You back test your strategy, ensuring it has an edge.
- You start trading small.
- You journal all your trades.
- You identify your struggles and sort them out one by one, always trying to stick to your strategy.
- As you get better you gradually increase your risk.
- You commit to continuous improvement.
You know it will not be easy. You know there will be lots of struggles and that you might deviate from the desired path every now and then… even so, you push through. That is discipline.
The other side of this, of course, is that you hit a bump and you start looking another strategy or the next side hustle – you repeat the cycle.
Finally:
Make the decision to commit to trading (or something else), make a plan, then execute it with discipline and patience. See what happens.
Thanks so much for reading. I hope you enjoyed this post. All the best.
Thanks and Regards,
Trading SOS SOS
