positiveIt’s the start of the year.
Time to look back on 2018, figure out what we did right and wrong, and look to make the most of those experiences for our 2019 goals and plans on how to achieve those goals. Make trading goals of course, but make non-P&L goals that set up good habits that contribute to performance. But also make personal goals. For those of us with little families, make goals for work-family life balance. For those without little families, make goals for pub, travel, fun, living the dream vs work balance.
Many of us already have our goals written down and are already putting our trading career plans into action. Some of us are reading this thinking, rubbish—this isn’t for me, or we are going to procrastinate. Well here’s the warning.
Goals without plans are just dreams. You want to become a million dollar trader, it doesn’t just happen by trading and wishful thinking. You want to trade 100 lots, 500 lots, 1000 lots in something, it takes the goal, the ambition and then the plan to make it happen. The highest performers inside and outside of Positive achieve big things because they feed their ambition, create goals, and put together plans that help them achieve their desires one step at a time towards each of their goals.
I am always reminded of my own shortcomings as a trader and as a person by the following thought. Our performance and goals are only ever limited not by what we can imagine, but by what we think we deserve from life. Some of us think we deserve 25K a year from the markets. Some of us think we deserve 100K. Some of us think we deserve more than 500K and are killing ourselves because we fell short and only made 400K in the markets. The fact that I am writing goals in the 100’s of thousands is a limiting factor right there. So if you want to achieve big, you have to think big, plan big and set big goals. It’s a process, but without the goal posts, we are doomed to fulfill our lower expectations. What does each of us deserve? What do you think you deserve? One of the greatest things about working with all the motivated and talented people at Positive is that our expectations of what we each think we deserve are elevated by the expectations and performance of the person sitting next to us. The bigger the expectation, the greater the effort, but the results are in front of us. Positive traders had 6 and 7 figure years. What do you deserve? What do you want to achieve? How do you go about it?
Overwhelmed with the prospect of setting goals? Involve the mentors and experienced people around you. Corner your mentor, head trader, trainer, and tell them your aspirations, tell them your goals, and together put together a plan that sets you on the path towards those goals.
More than a number of us have been fighting the battle vs the markets solo for too long and getting the same results year after year. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. If this sounds like you, reach out to the experienced people around you and take advantage of that experience and opportunity to work with somebody that can help move you forward. This job is hard. Don’t make it harder by relying only on yourself. Reach out. We all have much to learn from the talented and motivated people around us.
Lastly, I want all of you to know what a privilege it is to work with you. Thank you for trusting us with your careers. Positive is a unique place to work only because you make it a special place. Good luck to everybody in 2019, fingers crossed Trump keeps doing stupid stuff!