Do you believe that trading can teach you valuable life lessons? If you are a beginner, you will be surprised to learn the truth.
Yes, trading can teach you a lot of life lessons.
Let’s look at some of the experiences I had when I first started trading and what I learned from them.
Patience
I began swing trading when I was first starting out. And you have to wait days for it to be profitable.
I thought I was the one who was very patient and I am more qualified for this kind of work. As with any beginner, I simply had beginner’s luck.
I’m not sure how I managed to be patient for the majority of the time while swing trading. I’m not sure if the nature of swing trading made me patient, or if my patience made me better at swing trading.
My problem began when I started day trading for more profits.
Whenever I was impatient, I had the following thoughts:
“Oh my God! I should cut my losses immediately. I can’t stand the thought of my account blowing up“.
“Every time, I want quick profits. How long does this process take? Such a slow market. Let me book my profit early and leave”.
Patience, I believe, comes with knowledge and confidence. Knowledge of the market and the realities of trading, as well as confidence that I will handle it no matter what happens, will provide us with some patience.
I noticed a significant increase in my patience while analysing my trades after developing these two trading traits.
It also applies in real life. Having the right knowledge about that specific topic, as well as understanding the importance of patience in success, will help us improve our patience.
Nothing is perfect
This is undeniably true. Nothing is completely perfect. But how often do we remember this on a daily basis? Certainly not.
Nobody has ever gone through life without becoming enraged because other people failed to meet their expectations, or because they failed to meet their own. Because we all believe we should be perfect in every aspect of our lives.
After learning a lot about trading, I discovered that trading is also similar. And all trading gurus agree on one thing: “No strategy is 100% accurate.”
At first, I assumed they were just being cautious to avoid any problems from their students if they lost.
However, once I began trading, I realised that this is the only thing that is completely true. That nothing in life is flawless.
No strategy could guarantee me 100 percent accuracy. There were always losses. The most important lesson I learned here is that the only way to be happy with imperfection is to cut your losses short and run your profits.
Similarly, I’ve realised that no one is perfect in life. So I decided to cut my negatives as short as possible and let my positives run. And there is no reason to be ashamed or regretful of your mistakes.
Manage our emotions
Our emotions serve as our internal life guide, and emotional intelligence is the primary skill required to succeed in trading and in life.
When I first started trading, more and more trading gurus began to preach about the importance of managing our emotions while trading.
When I first started trading and kept a trading journal to track my profits and losses, I discovered that overtrading was the root cause of my losses. This is caused by the emotions of fear or greed.
I would not have had such large losses if I had discovered this earlier. Minor losses are unavoidable. However, blowing your account on a regular basis is not.
Keeping a journal to track all important aspects of my life helped me understand what I was doing wrong and why.
This is where I began to become more aware of my emotions in everyday life. I began to question whether my actions were motivated by emotion or logic. I can now confidently say that my emotional maturity has greatly improved, which in turn has improved my life and trading career.
Consistency
I just love planning things and having planners to help me plan and organize everything in my life.
The greatest obstacle was my failure to stick to my own plan. This is due to my issues with consistency.
It’s not a big deal if you don’t stick to your plan on occasion, but sticking to it only on occasion is.
Consistency is essential because if you constantly change things, you are not being faithful to what you believe in. Because the probability of the right match fitting in when the right opportunity comes along is extremely low.
I discovered this the hard way. I had significant losses. But I realized that changing your strategy every time you lose will not help you in the long run.
That’s when I realized we shouldn’t keep changing ourselves to please others because when the right one comes along who appreciates the traits you truly possess, you’ll truly miss out on your potential match.
I became consistent by realizing how important it is to stick to what you truly believe and understand. You won’t even have the desire to change anything this way.
Trading taught me a lot of things, but these were the best lessons I’ve ever learned, and I’m glad I started trading.
Let me know in the comments what lessons you’ve learned in trading or elsewhere.
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