Trading Psychology - How To Forgive Yourself

Hi, Brian McAvoy here with Inside Out Trading. And today we're going to talk about trading psychology and more specifically, how to forgive yourself. I mean, if you've ever beat yourself up for, you know, making mistakes, for bad judgments, for deviating from your system or not being able to stick to it, you know, if you've ever felt guilty about, you know, losing money, about all wasted time, time away from your family that, you know, hasn't been fruitful and productive, if you've, you know, felt, you know, gotten down on yourself because it's taking way longer than you ever expected. I know I felt like I was letting myself down, not being successful right out of the gate. I know I let others down, specifically my wife. When I blew out my account, that really, that hurt hers actually worse than it did me because that was like a big security thing for her. But, you know, you got to be able to forgive yourself. Carrying that animosity and that resentment and the, you know, the guilt and everything, it's counterproductive. It's not doing you any good. It's not helping you trade better. It's not adding to the quality of your life. You need to be able to forgive yourself. Here's one thing that really, when I finally realized, went a long way to cut myself some slack. And the same is true for you. We all start off as untrained traders. We all start off from square one not knowing anything, and we're having to learn. You did, I did. Everybody who starts off before you're a trader, you don't know how to trade. Here's the thing, though. Almost nobody gets complete and adequate and proper training on how to be a self directed, independent trader. Yeah, of course, people, everybody and their brother wants to sell you a system or whatever to show you how to place trades. But as far as all the rest of it, this is a business. This is something that you're talking about doing on a daily basis, week in and week out for the foreseeable future, for years. Okay, to do something once, that's fine. But to do something consistently and efficiently and profitably and do it well over years, that takes some training. It takes a whole lot more than here's how to place trades and here's a real simple way to tell if your training was lacking something, if it was maybe not 100% complete and proper and adequate is just check how you're doing right now. I mean, are you where you want to be? Are you comfortable when you trade? Do you go into your trading day every day with a Real calm sense of confidence in what you're doing, knowing that you're okay. Or is there some doubt? Is there some anxiety? Do you experience some confusion at times? See, if you're not where you want to be, there's something missing, especially if you've been trading for a long time. One of the biggest things that I see traders run into, because in general, traders are smarter than average, is okay here, what trading is about. I get it. Pretty simple. I get it. Let's get busy. And. And that's like one of the big pitfalls of trading is sure simple on the surface. Throwing money down at a roulette table, or here, deal me a handful of cards, or Mr. Blackjack, deal. Sure, that's easy. But like I said, doing it and doing it consistently, week in and week out, year in and year out, hundreds of times, that's a whole different ball game. And if you're not where you want to be, then there's something missing. And even if it was years ago, like I said, those gaps in your training are still affecting you today. Now, you probably have known in the back of your mind, yeah, I'm still missing something. What the heck? What do I have to do to get my trading working right? Is anybody making money? Is anybody ever working, making this work? I hear this all the time. People come to me and they're like, brian, I've been battling this for six, seven, eight years. What the heck? Is anybody making money? Because I'm struggling. I'm not stupid, and I can't seem to get it to work. And none of my friends have either. And what the heck's going on? Like I said, when it dawned on me, it's like, well, wait a minute, let's step back from it here a little bit. Yeah, this is a skilled profession, and if you're trying to do a job that you're not trained for, and there's pressure and it's challenging, it does require skills. But if you're not properly prepared for it, if you're not properly trained for it, yeah, it is going to be a stressful experience filled with a lot of mistakes. And there's almost no way to keep it from being an emotional experience because you're trying to do something you're not properly prepared to do. Here's the cool thing about it, though. When I work with people and we fill those gaps in your training, all of a sudden it's like, wow, yeah, now I can relax because I've got a handle on it. And, oh, okay. I'm just Going to go do my thing and you're okay. And it's true. I mean, look at any profession. If somebody's properly trained and they're actually prepared for it, they don't have psychological issues. They just go do their thing because they're ready for it. They're honestly ready for it. They're not trying to from an unprepared state. Now, the other downfall, and this is, this is a key thing if you have been trading for a long time. And especially, you know, the less training you got when you first started out. And like me and I mean, when I first started trading. Trading, yeah. The main thing I was doing was practicing bad trading. And I practiced it a lot. And I ingrained a whole lot of bad habits, bad perspectives, bad attitudes, bad responses. And that became a normal. And it took a while to overcome that. I mean, actually it took me blowing out my account and stepping back from trading, taking a break and then coming back to it. I mean, I didn't have a choice. I blew out my account. I would prefer not to have. But here's the thing, like I said, when you go back and you fill in those gaps, that makes all the difference in the world. Because now you're not trying to do something for which you're not prepared. You're actually ready for it. You've got a handle on it, you've got control over it, you've got a plan, you've got all the skills that you need. All the skills besides just how to place trades. There are more skills to it than that. Like I said, you've got yourself together so you can then go into it with confidence. And that's really cool. Now, I know this has been kind of a lot to take in, but I'm sure you can relate. And what I'd like to do for you right now is let's get you started. A really good starting point for you right now would be to go to my site, InsideOutTrading.com and you can just click on the link below and pick up a copy of the proven formula. It's a short report, but it really covers the things that you need to do. And it'll kind of start to open your eyes as to maybe some of the gaps that were there from your initial training, some of the things that again, are still affecting you today, regardless of how long you've been trading. Let's start there. Go pick up a copy of the proven formula. I've got some, some other information available on my blog if you like this cool. Like it. Share it with your friends. Make a comment below. Let's put your trading on a new path here instead of one of continued disappointment and frustration. This is where we start. Go to InsideOutTrading.com, pick up a copy of the proven formula. It's free. Let's go from there. I hope this has been helpful. I look forward to assisting you in your trading efforts and let's start you down a new path today. Cheers.