Taking imperfect action is a great way to help you break the feeling of overwhelm and make a move when you feel stuck and don't know how to take action or where to start. But once you start taking action, what can you do to keep that momentum going? Take that action to the next level by being consistent. Consistency is key to making progress in getting better at taking action and working towards your goal of becoming a better trader.
Consistency is key to making progress...
EP 016 Transcript
Welcome to the Affirmations for Traders podcast, a special space created, especially for you to listen to affirmations that make a positive impact to support you in your trading journey. I'm Tessa your host, like many of you as a trader, I understand the struggles of this journey very intimately. I believe that by adding the power of affirmations to your toolbox, it can be the game changer that you're looking for to help you improve your trading potential and to develop yourself into a better trader.
You're listening to episode 16 of the Affirmations for Traders podcast.
Hello! For those of you joining for the first time, welcome to the podcast! This podcast is not about the latest trends on taking certain types of trades, or how to get rich quick, nor is it about talks on what's going on in the markets or how to trade stocks, options, forex, futures, crypto, etc. because there are plenty of other podcasts and YouTube videos for that, don't you agree? The Affirmations for Traders podcast is a different kind of podcast that encourages and helps traders to focus on improving the mindset for trading by applying impactful affirmations that encourages traders to take action, now matter how small, towards becoming a better trader. It's a long game. Taking action means intentionally doing the things that needs to get done to move ourselves in the right direction of achieving our goals of becoming a better trader.
What are those things that we want to take action on? Here are some of the things that I've been bringing up in prior episodes so far, for example...to continuously learn and improve your trading process, which includes having viable trading strategies, having a trading routine, having a trading plan, incorporating risk management, protecting your capital, keeping a journal, studying how your trades performed and learning from what went wrong and what went right, practicing self-discipline so you can do all these things, and more. You may hear a lot of these topics and themes over and over again, but I think it's important because it takes time for these topics to really sink in and absorb. It takes time for our minds to change and shift.
I'd like to touch base a bit on Episode 15 from a couple of weeks ago. Are you MAKING PROGRESS WITH TAKING ACTION in your journey of becoming a better trader? And I am not necessarily talking about making profit yet, because that will follow once you're able to become a better trader by improving upon other aspects of trading. So, that action could be small and imperfect. If small and imperfect action helps to get you unstuck and puts you in motion, then that's what's important. Many people have ideas and dreams, but never take any action on it. If you haven't listened to Episode 15, I'd encourage you to do so! I would love to know from my listeners after listening to episode 15 if you have made any imperfect action and what did it feel like and how did it go? Did it help to get you unstuck in that moment? Did it help to break down some of the anxiety and overwhelming feelings of not knowing where to start and what to do? I'd love to know. Feel free to email me at hello@affirmationsfortraders.com.
Now, that we have taken these imperfect smaller actions, now what? The idea of Imperfect Action is to get you unstuck and moving, but now I want to challenge you to take it to another level by being CONSISTENT in taking those actions, because Being Consistent Is Key. You cannot just take the imperfect action and do it once right? Otherwise you won't t see results over time. I want to give you a ridiculously simple example. Here's an example. Say you have the goal to get into shape by exercising, but you're overwhelmed because there's just so many ways to get in shape and you don't know where to start, and you feel paralyzed with inaction, but you learned the concept of taking imperfect action. So, you decide to do just 1 push up today, just literally 1 not so perfect push up. You get on the floor and you do one, and you may even struggle with it, but hurray! You did it and you should really feel good that you took that one step to do something. That is awesome, right? Now though, you might be feeling hey that was easy, and it wasn't so bad. It's so tempting to think now that you can probably do a lot more, but actually what you should focus on next is how can you be consistent in doing that 1 push up every day (for example) and make that 1 push up a quality push up? My point is that it's more important to be consistent than to try to do more than you can handle in the beginning. You will get better with that 1 pushup and add more push up reps after you have demonstrated your ability to do it consistently.
So, let me apply another example, a trading related example. Let's say that you want to get better at studying the trades that you make and its performance so that you can learn from it and improve. And this is actually one of my areas that I'm trying to improve on, and it's one of the most time consuming areas of my trading process. One that can be a challenge for me because for one, it's not exciting and two, it takes time.
Let's say I have a portfolio of 10 trades that I've made, and I know that part of my process is to study my trades, study the performance and learn about what went wrong, what went right and how to improve it. But, I've been overwhelmed. Let's say I've been so overwhelmed in terms of what to do, what steps to take. But, I've learned this concept of taking imperfect action just to get moving so I decided to take one imperfect action of just writing down what I observed for just one of the trades I've closed out. How about even just writing down one sentence on one of those trades? One sentence on whatever I've observed. Great, so I take that action. Then what? Then I must work towards finding a way to be consistent with taking that type of action over and over again. So the next trade, I close out, I do it again, I write down 1one sentence on what I've observed . I want to be consistent in taking the action (depending on what it is) so that it becomes a habit. That habit helps to build my confidence. Then I will be able to go deeper into my observations and over time develop a routine. When I am consistent with studying my trades, I'm able to learn from the patterns that I see with the trades I make and understand it more and be able to make improvements. So, this is just an example I'm giving to think about how to be consistent with the actions you have taken so that it becomes a habit in your trading routine.
The question to think about is what will you do to be consistent in the things you want to get better at in trading?
Let's now turn to our affirmations that focuses on the theme of being consistent with the actions that you take towards your goals.
Before we start, let's prepare ourselves. Take a moment and close your eyes. Give yourself permission to be open to the affirmations you're about to hear. And feel free to repeat along with me.
Let's begin.
I am consistent in taking action, no matter how small.
I am patient and disciplined in staying consistent in my efforts
Consistency helps to build my self-discipline muscles, momentum, and progress.
I protect and manage my time wisely.
I set aside a regular amount of time every day to take action towards my goals.
I forgive myself, pick myself up, start again when things don't go as expected.
I am organized to help me stay consistent and to stay on track with my goals.
I focus on being consistent with the small actions that I can do every day until it becomes a habit.
I am worthy and I reward myself in meaningful ways when I take action.
Every action taken no matter how small is a step forward towards achieving my goals.
During the week, reflect on these affirmations and repeat them with deep intention. Feel free to add any of your own to this week's affirmations.
You were listening to Affirmations for Traders. Thank you so much for listening. Have a wonderful day, have a wonderful week. Take care.