Dealing With Pain
"Whenever you suffer pain, keep in mind that it's nothing to be ashamed of and that it can't degrade your guiding intelligence, nor keep it from acting rationally and for the common good. And in most cases you should be helped by the saying of Epicurus, that pain is never unbearable or unending, so you can remember these limits and not add to them in your imagination. Remember too that many common annoyances are pain in disguise, such as sleepiness, fever and loss of appetite. When they start to get you down, tell yourself you are giving in to pain."
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Today's meditation was quite fascinating and I had never heard this story about Winston Churchill before. What an amazing gesture to do what he did, to help somebody who could quite easily have killed him!
Not quite the comparison to trading really, but you can pretty much guarantee that you will be "dealing with pain" on occasion. Especially in the early period of your trading journey, as you learn from the mistakes that you make! But learning from those mistakes will make you determined to avoid repeating them.
As you become more experienced, you will make less mistakes, less frequently, as you become more and more familiar with your strategies, through repetitive practice; showing up every day that you can.
The way we deal with our pain as traders, is by accepting that it is all part of our learning curve and the cost of our education, as we strive to become the best that we possibly can!
I always remember my Grandad saying to me and I quote; "If I knew what I know now, when I was your age, I'd be a very rich man!"
If only we knew about the pitfalls of trading when we started out, so we could avoid them; our journey would be so much easier to begin with! But unfortunately it doesn't work like that and we have to accept that we will make mistakes (sometimes costly ones) as we navigate our trading path.
So in summary, we have to accept the losses and deal with the initial pain of those losses, to develop as traders.
It is important to look at the much bigger picture and our long term aim, to become successful and profitable traders.
It can be done and you can do it; I can assure you!