Let’s Talk GOALS!
Welcome back! Here at the Market Mamas podcast, we cover a wide range of topics from the intricacies of day trading to mindset mastery and psychological growth, with the goal of the conversations being leveling us all up to our most successful selves. As we welcome the year 2025 this week, we are likely not alone in spending a decent amount of time this holiday season reviewing and updating our goals for the year ahead. And in doing that, Becky started by reviewing what her goals were for 2024 and thinking about how that went for her.
At the start of 2024, Becky spent some time and wrote out a few different goals for her year ahead specific to the different areas of her life - family, trading, this market mamas podcast, and her health. For today’s episode/blog purposes, she wants to talk predominantly about her trading goals, as trading is her leading business venture. Within her written larger overarching goals for each area, Becky then expanded into action steps that would help guide her day to day towards the bigger picture achievements. For her trading goal, Becky remembers hesitating last January on putting in black and white a dollar amount for her trading aims for 2024 and in review, she did not actually write one down. Her global goal ended up being: “I will become an exceptional, consistent, disciplined, paid day trader.” And within that guiding direction, some of her action steps included active engagement in her trading education community, daily positive self talk and success visualization, written and clear trade plans before every market open, and daily journal entries, to name a few. Of everything she had listed, she was actually quite pleasantly surprised that she did achieve or at least improve in nearly all of them compared to her 2023 choices and results. Which was so awesome to realize recently.
Now looking back, as 2024 started, Becky found herself thinking more deeply about what a realistic fiscal trading goal could be, based on how she was starting out the year. For those of you who don’t know us as well or haven’t followed our podcast weekly, Becky had a strong trading start in 2024 and February 2024 was by far her most profitable month that she had ever had at the time. This was so inspiring and exciting! This had Becky all in her dreams for what she was going to earn and provide for herself and her family with her trading profits and how it all was going to compound. It was in that season that she set her mind and heart on a dollar figure that became her target for 2024. It felt achievable and realistically she felt on track for it at that time.
But sometimes the best laid plans… Long story short, Becky had struggle periods in her trading consistency and stability in the spring, and then again in July with a substantial back re-injury, and then again in October related to some misalignments with her prop firm funding company. These three unique setbacks in 2024 really derailed her trading and her beautifully laid out plans for compounding wins. As she closed out 2024 this week and tallied it all up, Becky fell short of her dollar goal. She only took home 60% of said goal in realized gains to her personal bank account from her trading accounts. Technically, this was a failure of that goal. In February of last year, she felt confident and ready to knock it out of the park. She remembers it very well actually. So, in missing that mark right now, she could be bummed.
But is Becky bummed? Hell, freaking NO! To be completely frank with you all, she am so damn proud! There is a quote by Norman Vincent Peale that reads: “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” This!! This is what she did, on a small, early trader level. But still! Becky shot for a sum that was far far more than she had ever made before as a trader and what she ended up earning was many multiples beyond what she made in 2023. It was a massive success, despite not quite hitting what she thought and hoped that she could on month 2 of the year.
She encouraged herself to pursue an ambitious and inspiring goal and worked her ass off for it. She chose belief as often as she could direct her thoughts in that way that she was more than enough to make it a reality. Becky was derailed and fell down many times. And those periods were hard. She cried a lot of days in 2024 to just let out a temporary release of the disappointment and fear that would sometimes bottle up inside. For her, by feeling those emotions, letting them flow, talking about them openly with her accountability partner, mentor and community - then she could let them go. Respect their lessons and refocus on what she could control. Which were her steps moving forward. In every instance that she stumbled, Becky purposefully had to choose to engage with what served her, and move beyond what no longer did. Becky’s process is good, her edge in the market is evolving and is strong, her heart is fully committed, and her family is very supportive. When she had to recenter herself, these FACTS would ground her and support her at getting back into her arena each day.
“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”
~ Norman Vincent Peale
And that is the driving force for this Market Mamas episode/blog. We imagine this message might resonate with a lot of messy middle traders. We are constantly bounced around between highs and lows of this extremely arduous pursuit in its early stages. The green periods are exciting, empowering, and inspirational. The red periods feel disappointing, worrisome, and potentially consuming. But, the facts can carry us through. At least, that has been really powerful for Becky to persevere through with. To lean into what she knows and the literal history of her growth since she first started learning to trade.
Let me tell you, who Becky is today is light years from the young woman she was when she had stars and dollar signs in her eyes when she first learned of the magical world of trading! Becky has felt every emotion that many of you potentially are at various stages of feeling too, and Becky had the financial success in 2024 that she did achieve because of her process and choosing time and time again to believe in herself. Sure, she did not reach her goal amount. But she made money beyond her expenses of her mentorship and account fees & commissions. And that matters in this business, am I right?!?!
So, to anyone who is currently writing, contemplating & fine tuning your goals for your 2025, as a trader or in any challenging pursuit, here are some actionable points that help us tremendously for stepping into our dreams!
Be FLEXIBLE! Flexibility means the ability to adapt and adjust in real time to changing circumstances and unexpected outcomes. It's about being agile and responsive to the ever-shifting feedback from the market, your system, and your life. You’ll need to embrace new technologies & ideas and integrate them into your business or trading process to maintain a competitive edge that fluxes with the market and your current learning stage. When something unexpected presents, you will have to handle the unforeseen challenges, such as a rapid shift in market sentiment or a major change within your trading community, effectively and directly. This means being flexible with it all as it comes.
Cultivate Greater Resilience: Life will always throw us curveballs, this is just the reality. Choose to withstand challenges and bounce back from setbacks more effectively each time for progress with your resilience. Let your experience hit you, but don’t sit for too long in any heightened emotional state. Rather, process it, journal it out, and then refocus on your process. If there was a lesson in any given situation, recognize and internalize it. And then use it for process improvement and just keep working! One day at a time. One trade at a time.
Allow a perceived failure to be used as FUEL! Viewing setbacks with openness and a growth mindset is crucial to thriving in today's dynamic and unpredictable environment. It allows you to navigate challenges more smoothly, seize fresh opportunities as the present, and ultimately carry on your path to achieving long-term success over time. Lessons are gifts for growth if we choose to experience them that way.
Embrace CHANGE: Change is inevitable. Life is constantly evolving, as are you and as we certainly have been in recent years especially! Instead of resisting the change, try to see it as an opportunity for growth and development and new experiences. Stepping outside of our comfort zones and being open to different perspectives can sometimes teach us what we didn’t even know we were missing but opens the door to unimaginable new directions. We can pivot as many times as we need to in life!
Focus on your daily effort and progress: Celebrate every achievement, large and small. Learn from your mistakes and be thankful for them as necessary teachers along your path. When we try hard and fail, that is not a waste!! It’s just a part of your education. As for the great moments, every win you achieve is the feedback of that growth! Every point from the market, every trade plan followed, every lesson thoroughly journaled and contemplated, every payout, every deep meditation session... Celebrate and feel pride in your outcomes that you have worked so hard for. Even if you fall short of a dollar amount at the end of the year, you still made progress and grew and that is a WIN in itself!
Let Go of Control: We have to accept that we can't control everything. Trying to control every aspect of your life, your outcomes, the people around you - this attempt can lead to stress, frustration, and serious distraction from your actual bigger goals and the work you need to do. Instead, we ought to concentrate our energy and time on our own actions, responses and thoughts. Being mindful of where we allow our energy to be held is powerful. Directing it for our good, from my experience, is definitely the most beneficial.
Develop coping mechanisms for stress & focus on the joy in your life: Find healthy ways to manage stress, such as exercise, spending time in nature, or engaging in hobbies. For Becky, she loves family time, gardening, and hiking. Every single time she spends energy in one of those activities and holds herself present in those moments, she finishes them feeling calmer, happier, more centered in who she is, and content. Even on a red trading day, there is so much in her life that brings her joy. Sometimes when the pain of a negative outcome or situation is still raw and acute, she has to force herself into a different headspace and activity. But once she can shift her focus away from the frustration and feel something that she loves, the weight starts to lift from her heart, the tension in her muscles can relax and her breath comes easier. Focusing on the joy really does make the long game of a very challenging pursuit truly manageable through periods of stress.
And lastly, forgive yourself for your mistakes: Please, always be kind to yourself. Treat yourself with the same compassion and understanding that you would offer a friend or your child. Every human makes mistakes. We have to just learn from them and move the heck on. Connect with people who uplift and inspire us, journal it out, breathe, and just forgive. Harboring negative thoughts and emotions will only bring us lower and we do not have time for that!
It's completely normal to not achieve every goal you set on time and in glorious fashion! But there ARE unexpected benefits of your failure to hit a goal to the tick. The lessons we are learning along the way to our biggest goals are making us stronger!! A failure or rejection doesn’t chain us to our status quo. It is building our wings that will help us fly to the highest highs! Obstacles are making us stronger for even greater success to come!! As the wise Jim Rohn once said: “Don’t wish for less problems, wish for more skills.” And skills are developed out of studying, researching, failing and building resilience, adjusting our process, asking for help, and staying in the game while the skills improve. Even when our growth isn’t as obvious in a given day or week. With hindsight, it becomes obvious that it has occurred if you just didn’t quit.
For Becky, *not hitting that dollar amount goal she had for 2024 has been TRANSFORMATIONAL. She has learned an insane amount of trading skills, emotional maturity, personal belief, stronger bonds within her trading community, a deeper understanding of her trading edge, tighter risk management, more patience with her progress AND some real money to boot in 2024. Holy freaking wins!!
If you likewise have massive goals, be it in trading or any of life’s pursuits, let’s keep at it in 2025! For Becky’s goal writing this week, she has been adjusting and re-evaluating quite a bit. And, yep, her financial goal is definitely more for 2025 than it was for 2024. She will never not shoot for the moon! Because landing in the stars this last year was good. It was really good. Empowering, inspiring, and exciting for all that is still building within and from her. And we know that can be for you too! Let’s keep our eyes on the prize, but also keep showing up to our day to day work in the grind of what we know is building us. Even the hard parts.
Strive daily for progress, not perfection. That is our over arching approach and you guys, it freaking works. Consistency trumps intensity every damn time if what you want is substantial, such as a 7 figure trading business. Goal setting is an ongoing, dynamic process. It's about learning, adapting, and growing, not just a specific outcome. Your worth is not defined by whether or not you achieve a particular goal. It is who you are along the way. We never know when our time in these bodies will be up. So we are strong advocates for enjoying the moments we are in, no matter where we are at in the journey towards our goals. Our hearts, spirits and loved ones deserve for us to also see the beauty even on those hard days. But also remain relentlessly driven towards our biggest goals. Two things can absolutely be true at the same time, such as these.
Thank you to everyone who is subscribing to our podcast, reading our blogs, and providing us feedback! We are truly grateful to be growing this MM podcast and community with you all! We love talking about our favorite subject - trading! Miss Market is abundant for those of us that embrace a growth mindset and pursue deliberate practice in learning her tells and our own tendencies. And trading absolutely can be an avenue for the wildest success. But not without diligent work for many many months and years. But to those who show up for the effort and dedication, you are our people and I would love to get to know you better! Please take a moment to shoot us a comment on https://www.market-mamas.com/contact! Have a great day AND a great year everyone! Let’s go!
