One of the keys to success in any field is to develop consistency. Consistency in thoughts and actions. It’s one of the most important lessons I learned this year. If you apply the principle of consistency to your trading, you’ll find it has the power to take you to the next level of success that you are seeking with your trading.
Consistency is one of the key things I preach to all my students. Decide what your goals are over the next few months, and work consistently to achieve them. Do something EVERY day to work towards your goals. You will find this creates a habit and really helps to build momentum.
Consistency leads to habits. Habits form the actions we take every day. Action leads to success.
Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you ready or not, to put this plan into action. ~ Napolean Hill
When you first change your behavior, there is initially a lot of resistance because your brain is not used to functioning in this new way. But over time, as you consistently focus on the new behavior, the pathways in your brain literally begin to change. Over time that momentum become easier to maintain as your new behavior becomes a habit that is performed with very little thought or effort.
With two young children, my spare time is a lot more limited than it used to be. So I needed to developed consistency in my actions in order to make the most of my free time and increase my efficiency. Some of the new habits I formed were:
- I set aside certain times each day to check The markets, and would not check them outside those hours. In my opinion, absolutely nothing is gained from monitor watching.
- I set aside certain times each week to spend writing blog posts.
- I moved my market update webinars to Sunday night as this is a night we are generally home. As these are now planned in advance it reduces stress in my house as my wife can plan around this in advance.
- I made sure I did something each day to build my website. Most of the time, that was spending 20min before I went to sleep writing a blog post, or responding to emails. But at least I was doing something and building that momentum.
So how can you apply this to your trading?
- Start working on your trading journal. Set aside 30 minutes each week to fill this in with all your trades from the previous week. Also write down how the market behaved and how that affected you positions AND your emotions.
- You can apply consistency to your trading decisions. I.e. Follow your trading plan at all times!
- Time management is something that I teach. Set aside certain times each day / week to perform certain tasks related to your trading.
Those are just a few ideas, but I’m sure you can think of some more. So, as you think about the goals that you want to set in 2012, remember the following.
1. Success is reached one habit at a time.
2. Habits are formed through consistent action.
3. At first, focus on consistency not results. Later you can work on the effectiveness of your action
2. Habits are formed through consistent action.
3. At first, focus on consistency not results. Later you can work on the effectiveness of your action
Let me know in the comments section what other ways you could add consistency to your trading routine.
