Upgrading Your Identity
We’re excited to have you with us today for our topic on upgrading one’s identity! It’s a journey that is inevitable when learning to become a trader and something we’ve been really intentional about as we continue to develop and expand our person. There’s so many interesting and complex angles when thinking about identity but the most basic definition is “the fact of being who or what a person or thing is.” Seems simple enough and it is when you’re not pursuing a significant upgrade towards a new identity. That’s when things start to get tricky and it’s important to unpack how we came about to believe who and what we are. It’s very common to become so attached to one particular story about us. Everyone seeks out others to identify with for acceptance and familiarity. We are just hard wired that way not only for an emotional need but for physical safety. There is strength in this – Think of a pack of wolves that always show up for each other right?
Let’s talk about when identity can become a real challenge. As we stated earlier, we have experienced this specifically within our trading careers. It was in one of our recent guest interviews that our featured advanced Day Trader Jermaine, stated “I had to change my identity. I had to change me being afraid to tell someone that this is what I do and I'm good at it.” And he went on to discuss the psychological work needed to be able to pull the future into the present. This does not realize or actualize itself without the need to break down and break through many mental barriers. We still are actively struggling with acknowledging out loud that we are day traders. When we catch ourselves trying to downplay this identity as a hobby or interest to acquaintances instead of an active career for ourselves, it bothers us. So, it’s time now to more actively choose each time now to be clear that we are actually day traders AND podcasters. Because, this is who we are. We show up every day to our charts, to our accounts, to our risk and reward. We execute trades with logic and skill and reap rewards or take our knocks. We are active and involved in our trading communities and accountable to our trading partner and our families for our outcomes. We have a voice in the trading world and it’s generally pretty on point. Injecting these facts of our day to day lives are, thankfully, slowly shifting our personal identities, as Jermaine stated he went through, so that it doesn’t sound so foreign anymore!
This can often present itself as imposter syndrome, right? We don’t know about you all, but we have days that we wake up confident in our abilities, all the work we’ve put in thus far, and just so in sync and ready to flow with the market. Energized, optimistic, and evenly keeled. Other days, we wake with a whole different vibe. We question our progress, overthink our trade plan, and have some annoying angst that’s starting to build within our minds. These days, we can find it hard to be fully focused and present, and it’s not at all conducive to a winning mindset. One exercise we have found that greatly helps with this is to actually visualize an imposture showing up and taking over. Like really what that would look like and be like? So, specifically for trading, that would be someone who hasn’t had any real trading education or possesses any knowledge, hasn’t spent day after day and years practicing and developing an edge, doesn’t even know how to log into a trading platform or place an order, has no clue how to read a chart, or any trading terminology… etc. You guys get the point. The takeaway is that after running down this mental list of what an “imposture” would actually do, or be unable to do at that moment is so powerful because it’s a reality check. All those aforementioned items are exactly what we do know how to do, and then some! Spending a few moments doing this visualization really helps get our heads back in the game and ready to participate. It’s also given us some of our most empowering affirmations, “I’m a very skilled day trader”, “I’m not here by accident”, “Just do what you know how to do, what you practice everyday.”
“You have to be willing to go to war with yourself and create a whole new identity.”
~ David Goggins
This really brings to my mind all the wasted energy spent on overthinking, doubting, and self-ridicule that is more often than not accompanied when attempting to upgrade our identity. It’s that vulnerability that comes with putting yourself on the line with very little assurances or validation. Especially in the culture we live in today, there’s just this even bigger desire and drive to belong to an identity or group and technology of course has amplified it even more. This can be fun and inspiring, and makes me think of funny memes we all share and identify with culturally... It can also be decisive and destructive, and makes me think of politics and news that tries to feed us a loaded narrative. Sometimes it feels like the world is becoming even more and more judgmental by the day, so as to make others feel better in their choices. It can almost seem like identity becomes more of an idea a person thinks they do or a set of beliefs they want to align themselves with, than what they actually do. This has got to be reframed and risen above from! You want to feel your place in the advanced levels of life, such as successful day trading, then identify how you are holding yourself back, do better and rise up with actions. This is how you earn your place, and by putting in the work to claim next levels, you will more easily know you have a right to live there, as you felt every effort you endured to arrive. Every trading session, every journal entry, every study session and every account evolution.
This is why fully upgrading our identity can feel so tricky at times. It’s as if we’re in a battle with our limiting beliefs and just doing shit. Most definitely the facts are that what we do on a daily basis, actions we take, habits we build and sustain, necessary pivots we make – these are the things that will ultimately change our identity and is how we level up. Feelings are fleeting, they’re temporary! Maybe I cannot stand you one day and tomorrow I’m back in love. Action, on the other hand, is irreversible and permanent. I really love the quote from the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, “To become what one is, one must not have the faintest idea of what one is.” The way we interpret this is so in alignment with the upgrades we are making to our identities. We are not restricted by anything! In fact, pull the mental and physical restrictions and follow your passions, dreams, push your limits, work harder than you thought possible, fight for more and when more comes, know that you earned it!
Like our guy Eddie Pinero says, “Simplicity is the greatest form of sophistication!” We have both been challenged by stepping into new arenas, even now with Market Mamas. But, at the end of the day, we keep waking up and riding at dawn. Logging another trading session, recording a new episode, taking care of our families. It’s all compounding and our identities are not set in stone. Two things can be true at once. What we have chosen is to not ever negotiate on showing up each day to honor these commitments. We are deserving of upgrading our identity, expanding our person, and being unapologetic about it. It was the wise Ralph Waldo Emerson with his famous quote of: “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” Fight the pressures of conformity and embrace the challenges! That is the energy we are coming at all of this with. We don’t always win the mental battle every day, this shift won't happen overnight if it is to be sustainable. But, we are getting better with tuning the noise of the masses out and just doing us. Knowing in our hearts what we are driven towards and capable of and following that avenue over the easier, safer paths. These active choices each day are building our momentum for the inevitable evolution that is taking place in our cores. We believe that takes place in the souls of everyone who pushes hard, diligently, and without fear to a deeper level of accomplishment and existence.
We Market Mamas truly believe that it is in everyone of us to truly level up if the desire and drive are powerful enough for long enough. There is room for us at the top too. Let’s go!