Are You Enjoying Your Trading Journey?

Are you focused only on your goal? Do you wake up and go to bed with your goal in mind? Or do you also find time to enjoy the journey to the goal itself?

I'll tell you from my personal experience. A few years ago, multiple people told me: "Tomas, don't forget to enjoy the journey, because you will achieve your goal without doubt, but if you don't enjoy the journey to the goal, nothing good will come out of it".

It took me a long time to finally hear those people, because at the time it appeared to me as non sense. I was thinking: "How can I enjoy? It has to be hard, I need to dedicate and sacrifice myself for the goal".

But, this year is different. A few months ago I changed my trading routine. Between midday and 3pm I'm not trading anymore. I take only two sessions a day: morning and afternoon. As a result, now I can spend this time for myself, being outside, doing whatever I love and enjoying life.

I understood that I spend too much time with my computer. While it's true that the more time I spend at the charts, the more trades and pips I make - but if I think about the most common hours when I place my trades, I know that I can dedicate some of those hours to something else - to the activity of the Soul and to enjoying the Being.

A human is a special kind of creature. He's not only for Doing, but he's here for Being as well. So, are you enjoying your journey to the goal?

Do I have a goal? Yes, I do. And I know that with my current pace it will take me 3-4 years to reach my current goal in trading (a specific amount of capital).

Do I think about how to arrive at my destination faster? Yes, I do. However, I don't allocate too much time for this kind of contemplation. Because I know that in trading I can't push it too hard. What I have observed from my experience is that the more you try to apply the work logic of positive sum world (providing services, selling products) in trading, the worse result you're going to get.?

In the positive sum world, it's okay to work like a horse to make more money, however, in trading it's not possible and it's going to bounce back. When you're tired and you start seeing things that don't actually exist in the chart - nothing good comes out of it.

Therefore, knowing that "work like a horse" logic is not valid in trading, and if I want to achieve my goal faster, I need to think how to get there intelligently. How to achieve significant results with minimal changes and minimal effort. And very often, a big part of my ideas are discarded.

I can think of many new ways how to trade, I can do a lot of research and backtesting, but it all comes down to a single question: "am I able to actually execute the plan that I wrote?"

In the past, one of my most recurring themes were turning to M1 charts. Because if you watch M1 charts intensively, there will be more trading opportunities. It's an undeniable fact. However, whenever I tried watching M1 charts all day, I could manage that for a few days maximum. Because when I spend my day glued to M1, my mind starts going crazy, life feels meaningless and in the end I'd always come back to my usual trading plan.?

I don't say that it's impossible to make money trading solely M1, it's just that psychologically it wasn't suitable for me, but it might be suitable for other people. The me-soul becomes uneasy and blatantly objects that kind of activity. It feels how the precious time of being here on Earth passes by without purpose.

I always thought that the most important goals in life are related to money, and I still value money very highly, but I can't go against myself. I can't because it affects my health. If you go against yourself for extended period of time, the health deteriorates significantly (if you want to understand why it happens scientifically, read Dr John Demartini). And in the end, these kind of activities end up with those typical stories when a man earns a fortune but dies too early. What's the point?

From health perspective, in the last few years of trading I've reached some points where I really didn't want to stay for longer. But since last week, I'm back to an active sport. It's wise to remind yourself that what you do on a daily basis, it makes your years and your decades. And how you're going to look and feel like in 50 years will be determined by your daily actions, thoughts, internal state.?

So, are you enjoying your trading journey? Are you only focusing on the goal or do you find time to enjoy the trip to the goal itself? Ask yourself this question and I wish you a wonderful day.