Thursday Trader's Tip: Dealing with Loneliness In your Trading Journey
Thursday Trader's Tip editions offer quick trading psychology advice that can be digested in 5 minutes.
In this week’s videos, we’ll talk about loneliness in the trader’s journey.
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Written Version:
At first, when loneliness starts creeping in, it might not seem like a big deal. You keep going with your trading routine, sort of brushing it off. But as time passes, things take a bigger dimension. You’d be surprised by the number of traders who confess to me they’d like to take more out of life and broaden their social life.
These days, people isolate themselves and live independently. This creates a lot of tension and stress that doesn’t help you get where you want to be. Feeling lonely has tremendous impacts on your physical and psychological health, which are not conducive to elite trading performance.
If you want to stand out as a trader, you need to align every facet of your life to feel as good as you can.
Loneliness is more felt during two contrasting scenarios for traders:
Tough Times: The losses cause confidence to wane, especially when they last beyond the maximum drawdown period experienced by a system. As the losses continue, the trader has no one to turn to or confide in. There's a lack of direction and support, and the trader can enter a negative loop of performance and disbelief.
Success Isolation: On outstanding trading days, when a trader is thrilled about their performance but there's a void... They lack someone with whom to share their joy or profits. Conversely, successful independent traders can lack guidance and role models that can motivate them in trading, which exacerbates the feeling. It's lonely at the top.
You've put in a ton of time and effort to get to where you are, and now you realize there's more to this journey.
You realize more than ever the price tag that comes with this career. As you become a better trader, your perspective broadens, and you start thinking about the bigger picture of your life. This involves questioning if you need to tweak something to meet your values and emotional needs.
We're social beings—don't let yourself become the kind of trader who's cooped up at home all day. Remember, you’re in this not just for the physical freedom and flexibility it can give you but for the mental freedom, too! If your current environment is not motivating you or making you feel lonely, you’re the only one who can do something about it.
You’d be surprised at how your quality of life can improve with just a few adjustments, even if you feel too lethargic to make them. Witnessing people stuck in undesirable circumstances for too long is disheartening.
You're not too old to inject more fun into your life or to pick up new hobbies; you're not too set in your ways to benefit from a coach who can help you get more out of life, and you're certainly not too antisocial to meet people who truly inspire and uplift you.
Step outside your comfort zone—that's where life really begins!
When you recognize there’s more to life, and you’re not living up to your full potential, that should never be that way. You know something can be done so go above and beyond to live your best life. I promise it’ll reflect on your trading results!
Peaceful trading,
Sara
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