When You Lose Control
"The soul is like a bowl of water, and our impressions are like the ray of light falling upon the water. When the water is troubled, it appears that the light itself is moved too, but it isn't. So, when a person loses their composure it isn't their skills and virtues that are troubled, but the spirit in which they exist, and when that spirit calms down so do those things."
— Epictetus, Discourses
We can all relate to today's meditation! I did this big time when I first started out on my trading journey and I'm sure most of you reading this will have done so too at some point! We can always be prone to messing up; making the odd mistake because we are humans and not robots; it's in our DNA! What is important is how we deal with those times when we "mess up." We can't afford to lose control, because this will have a knock on effect and we will be breaking our rules and revenge trading and looking for that elusive big win to make things right again! This is exactly what we don't want to do of course! This is the way to make the mistake 100 times worse by digging ourselves a much bigger hole to get out of! We must stay calm and accept that we didn't get it right and make sure we learn from what we did wrong. We can make mistakes but it only becomes a problem if we repeatedly make the same mistakes and don't learn from them. So STOP and look at the bigger picture. How far have you come on your trading journey so far? Are you going to let a mistake set you back big time by breaking your rules and going full tilt? Take a break and analyse what you did wrong, take heed and move on. We can't turn the clock back so we have to stay positive and get back to what we were doing successfully before we messed up.
Get back to doing what you know works for you. You have those strategies in place, with rules and criteria that must be fully met. Take those opportunities that come your way again, executing your trades as per your trading plan.
So don't get lost in the moment when you mess up/make a mistake; "Regain your composure. It's waiting for you"