Self-Talk for Trader Perseverance & Positivity
The fact of the matter is that learning to successfully trade is hard. Super freaking hard. BUT! It is doable for the most dedicated among us. With mentorship, time, effort, grit and faith. So, we can and will knock down barriers and reach profitability and ultimate wealth. But, it can be arduous and pain-staking, especially in the messy middle years. In this episode/article, we are going to focus on how we’ve been able to keep climbing, keep swimming, and entering this arena each day. If you’re here with us at Market-Mamas right now, we're pretty sure you’re trying to continuously improve and develop into the best version of yourself also, so let’s do it together!
Trading is crazy hard. Even when you really start getting somewhere, it is still so easy to be knocked back down several steps and have to get back up again, wash off the blood, sweat, and tears, and re-settle to get back in the game. So, we need to utilize as many resources as possible to make our progress as smooth as it can be in this arena. Many research studies have proven the clear benefits of positive self-talk to our psychology. Powerful and directed self-talk can greatly improve our mindset and whole energy regarding a pursuit, even a super hard one! It can enable us to tap into a synchronicity with our greater goals and guide our actions in the moment so that they are in alignment with our big picture aims.
Through our journeys over the past 3 plus years, we have endured so many highs and lows and are now as dedicated and positively evolving as ever. A big part of our progress has been talking it all out continuously. Supporting each other, finding and listening to powerful content that speaks to us in each moment where we are at and encourages us to keep moving forward. Through that journey, we have discovered the self-talk and good energy that is the most empowering to us as growing day traders. And now we are going to share with you our favorite and most impactful positive self-talk phrases, mantras, and affirmations that always put our minds and bodies in the best space for optimal performance and ideal mental health.
We know how difficult day trading is, and how few people really get how many hours a day we spend studying, practicing, winning, losing, dialoguing, journaling, buying courses and resources, and trying yet another new strategy. It has been A LOT, and we know this all too well! It was not for nothing ladies and gentlemen. It was building us. Strengthening us, teaching us. It’s a refinement process! Yes, some days it still seems like we have so much further to go and we do but today at this moment, if you really examine it, we are like lightyears ahead of where we stood on month one, two or three. Really think on that for a moment about how much more you know, understand, have intuition about in trading and what you can do with that. How much you can now offer to a trading partner or community in a mutually beneficial conversation. Each one of us has so much to give and value we can add to this space. There is never an end destination in trading, instead there’s a revolving door of opportunity we get to walk through each day.
You didn’t come this far to only come this far!
With this episode, Becky has to give a shout out to her favorite coach, her trainer Amy. We even interviewed her here on Market Mamas because she is such a powerful and well-rounded coach for not only physical fitness but also psychology. One mantra that Becky heard from her and repeats to herself every single day now are: I am strong, happy, peaceful and blessed. This is a whole life energy type of mantra, and it just flows off the tongue so nicely. Amy has said it in our workout sessions so consistently that it is now a permanent fixture in Becky’s mindset due to that repetition and she actually now truly believes it! For everyone, whether this phrase speaks to you as is or you want to change out a word or two for how you best want to feel, go with it. But let’s think about it as is - I am strong, happy, peaceful and blessed. I know that I have built and maintain a strong body and mind. And I choose happiness with my life and family every day. I have made my life how I want it and I feel peaceful and blessed to be able to enjoy everything I have and am. This is not to say that my life is perfect, but, there is so much beauty and joy to be thankful for in it and choosing to focus on the things I can be grateful for is a great energetic space to live within. Gratitude is powerful and feeling abundant welcomes more abundance to you. There’s a great energetic vibration to keeping your mind in that abundant space that will bring more greatness to you.
And, also from Amy: I am a work in progress and a masterpiece at the same time. Two things absolutely can be true at once and this is a prime example of that fact. We are incredible. We are not just tooting our own horns or whatever. That is not what self-talk is. It is speaking with full conviction that this is the image of you that you want to live with and really be. Because, you guys, we are incredible, you are incredible! You know in your heart that you try very hard at what you are pursuing, or you wouldn’t be here with us in this community right now. You chose to persevere for growth, progress and greatness. That is you recognizing that you have room for improvement and are working on it. But the greater most powerful part of that is who you are to be trying this hard. You are strong, smart, driven, dedicated, and worthy. You are a masterpiece, in case no one has told you yet today. What you are doing in your day to day life is important for you and your family and the journey of it is masterful in itself.
As some of you may know by now, we are big David Goggins fans here at Market Mamas, and the last chapter of his book Never Finished really spoke to our unrelenting, unapologetic, and warrior spirit. We’re going to share some of those experts because they’re perfect for this discussion. First up: Your greatness is not tied to any outcome. (Ok for us in trading it doesn’t feel that way TBH, but let’s keep on.) Goggins continues with: It is found in the valiance of the attempt. It’s easier to overcome doubt that you’ve built up in your mind. It’s much harder when you know you’ve failed more than once and the odds of success are slim. But because of the way we live and thanks to the mindset we’ve worked hard to cultivate, we had enough belief left to try one more time. Ok so this right here, this man, pretty sure he’s not at all involved in trading the markets, but he gave this perfect descriptor of how it feels to learn trading, to fail at trading, and to keep trying despite the odds not being in our favor. Then he goes on to say, failure has been neutralized! Love that! Goggins explains, when I set an unreasonable goal and fall short, I don’t even look at it as failure anymore. It is simply my first, second, third, or tenth attempt. That that is what belief does for you, it takes failure out of the equation completely because you go in knowing that the process will be long and arduous and that is what the fuck we do! Yes it is, ok the blown account, the 5 steady steps up, and the sudden 10 step fall, the demon day we let sabotage us, bring it on. He wraps it up nicely then with, every bit of the pain, doubt and humiliation is fucking worth it, but the only way to get there is to continually seek greatness and always be willing to try one more time. David Goggins has a rep for being a freaking hard ass borderline lunatic, but those experts from Never Finished, we actually found to be filled with self-love and compassion! These are the qualities and the mindset we and I’m sure many of you have worked tirelessly to build, manage, and renew because we know it’s not supposed to be easy, only worth it!
For our self-talk at this point, 3 years into our trading careers, we really love focusing on hindsight as our momentum to keep going. Hindsight is tricky - you can’t go back in time and change choices, so we don’t mean it like that. But, more so, the view of where we are today compared to where we were 2 1/2 years ago! Some days it is hard to feel like we are getting anywhere. Especially if we have had a mixed week of wins and losses both on the charts and/or in life. The day to day emotions can feel heavy at times. We find such value in taking a moment here to sit quietly and look back over everything we have learned and all the ways that we have grown over time. Now, we are trading with a serious edge and have a reasonably strong intuition about market context and flow. We have structure in our lives that supports our journey intermingled with our family life, strong relationships with our trading people, a repeatable process for approaching our trading morning that serves us and our trading style well. Our lives and journeys look and feel nothing like the baby steps and random trades with no true understanding that we did in our first year of our trading journey. We needed those hot-mess years, and we are still messy at times in our trading. But, we compare the us today to the us of then, and we are inspired. We feel proud, blessed and strong. We know what our lowest low felt like and how hard we worked to climb out of every valley along the way. And we bet you guys do too.
Speaking of comparison - we also do our very best to stop comparing ourselves to everyone else. It generally only leads to fomo and feelings of inadequacy. Fuck that, we don’t have time for that energy. We aim to only compare to who we were, where we are at now, and with these beautiful improvements we are making, where we anticipate we will be in another 3 years as we continue with our growth curve. You guys - think! Think how far you have come. We have improved 10 fold over these past 3 years. And are excited for the life we will be living after another 10 fold improvement. Time is flying by. That is inevitable. So, keep growing! If your improvements over your past few years are anything like ours with what you have learned and developed- feel, right now, the power and thrill of knowing where you are headed. With courage and determination, keep going. You are building and it is working - the proof is in the rearview mirror. And the future is so freaking bright for everyone brave enough, like you and us, to never stop. Be unstoppable!
Check out Kendra speaking her life into existence right here as a clear example of the beauty, strength and direction that our self-talk propels us to: “I believe in the following: ‘Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.’ I want to become one of the top women traders in the world. I want the abundant and full life that I was born to live. I want this for myself, my family and I want this for every woman to realize and actualize their ability to do or be anything and everything of their most magnificent dreams. This is what I go to work for every morning, this is my aim, target, and where I release my arrow time and time again. I get closer as I continue to conquer my limiting beliefs, master my demons, and expand my identity. I have burned the boats, there’s no leaving the island. I am put here to deliver my people and I will do just that. Continued investment, dedication, and action that is voluntary is what sets us as traders apart. I’m just gonna speak the truth here, no one is forcing us to do this, trading makes you a unique kind of person, to say it nicely. We may have chosen to learn trading, but at some point trading chose us. It’s a lifestyle and one I feel fortunate to have found my place in. Also, I’m young, healthy, and vibrant, so I’m going to be open to receive all the lessons and blessings Miss Market has for me!
This will look and sound slightly different for all of us, but we strongly encourage us all to dream major dreams and then live in them every day until we fully make them our reality! We all have that power! The psychology part of trading is a major requirement to work through when elevating to greatness. It is truly critical to success and perseverance as a trader, or in any really challenging pursuit. The technical work of growing and evolving a new skill, such as trading, is of course a must. The mindset work can be seen as a gray area by some. But, once you get into the messy middle of really breaking through barriers, this has to be addressed daily. Focused and robust positive self-talk, either just to yourself or with your trading partner, is major. There is power in reviewing your strength, skill, faith, and progress daily to keep your head in the game. Stay courageous and dedicated, you guys! Look how far we all have come thus far! We got this! You got this! And you are fully capable and worthy of all of your dreams. Know that in your soul and remind yourself of it everyday. If you personally don’t have a sustainable daily process for these reminders yet, stick with us and together we will remember how strong, capable, blessed, and unstoppable we all are. Our best trading days are ahead!