3 Tips to Mastering The Art of Self-Discipline

Traders are some of the most disciplined people you can meet. It takes iron-clad self-discipline to religiously stick to a trading plan, follow your stop losses, and control emotions such as fear and greed.

But what exactly makes them more disciplined than the average person? To put it simply, profitable traders have instilled inside of them the habit of discipline. Just like a martial artist, a trader sticks to his or her daily routine without exception.

This discipline doesn’t only translate in trading, but in everyday life– that’s why discipline is a trader’s habit. One of the main reasons why traders consistently lose money is because they don’t follow their trading plan. They usually go off-tangent because they either didn’t follow their schedule or caved into their emotions.

So if you want to become a more educated trader, you must first develop the habit of discipline. If you build that self-discipline on a holistic level, you’ll notice that it will trickle down to your trading activities.

In this article, we will share with you 3 powerful tips to mastering the art of self-discipline:

Tip 1: Stick To Your Schedule

Undoubtedly, there are so many temptations that can distract us from our tasks. From social media to Netflix series, these things can easily sway us from our daily routine. However, traders know the importance of schedule because they follow the movement of the market.

The market has its own schedule so if you don’t diligently follow it and integrate it into your routine, you can expect to miss a number of trading opportunities. So in a holistic manner, create a daily schedule and follow it to the core.

Tip 2: Set Your Goals and Execute Them

Having goals is an extremely important aspect in life. If you don’t have a clear vision of what you want and the necessary steps to execute it, then you will most likely get sidetracked. So the key here is to first have a long term goal (let’s say 20 years in the future) and concise steps in how to get there.

Next, you need to make a medium term goal (10 years in the future) and concise steps to execute it. Lastly, create your short term goal (5 years from now) and the plan how to get it done. Always remember that your execution plans need to be specific or else you may get confused on how to turn them into reality.

Tip 3: Learn to Keep On Moving

Whether we like it or not, there will always be setbacks to our plan. Maybe in our 3 or 5 year plan, there’s a big blockade that stops us from moving forward. When this happens, it’s actually really to just give up on the goal and just go with the flow.

However, you need to keep focused on the long term. That’s why it’s important to always have a backup plan in the event that the first one doesn’t work. So when you create your execution steps, create a backup that links to the medium and long term goals so that you can stay focused on the bigger picture.

At the same time, you need to make sure that your schedule integrates into your execution plan and goals so that everything is congruent.

In a way, you can also liken this to trading. When you lose money, you need to learn how to move on and look at the long term goal. You must also learn how to let go of losing strategies that don’t suit you. A newer and more suitable strategy will be your next action plan that can contribute to your long term goal.

The only way to be a more disciplined person and a more disciplined trader, you need to know how to put everything into place. Starting from your schedule to your goals to your execution plan and then to your contingency plan, all aspects need to be tightly correlated so that there is no room to be distracted.

Learning the art of self-discipline is a crucial step to becoming an educated trader. Consider it one of the first steps to trading success.

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