Do you know what you are really looking forward to when trading? Have you set some goals to work towards? Do you know why you want to achieve the set goal? Do you know what is required in order for you to have a chance of achieving your goals? If you do not have goals and a plan on how to achieve what you want, you are like a sailboat without a rudder in the ocean, and you will drift far in the direction that the winds and currents will take you. You have no control! Setting goals is an important step in achieving the things you want in life. Sure you can achieve things without setting goals and making a plan which many have, but by setting goals and creating a plan of action you become more focused and more self-aware in the details to help accelerate your progress.
We can divide goals into all different categories like personal health, physical fitness, spiritual, family, relationships, career, education, investments, and finances to name a few. Within each category we choose to create goals, you must create subcategories. So for financial goals, one of the subcategories would be trading goals. Now as a general statement, everyone who decides they want to become a trader wants to make money. This is a statement made for oneself, but not a necessary goal because I have never met anyone who decided to become a trader in order to lose money. So what are goals and how is the right way to create them in order to achieve them?
All desires in life come from dreams, desires and needs. From these dreams, desires and needs goals are created. The process begins with creating a list of dreams without allowing your mind to set limits on those dreams. Don’t allow your current situation or condition to limit your thoughts about your dreams. Create your dream menu, where there are no barriers. After creating your dream list, the next process you need to do is to review your dream list and review each item and see if it is a realistic dream, desire or need within your current circumstances in your life. If the dream is to live in a two million dollar house on the ocean off the coast of Florida and your current job makes $25,000.00 a year and you have very little savings, that dream would not be a realistic dream given the current circumstances in your life.
Now if you are willing to make a drastic change in a career that will give you higher earnings or find a way to make your savings work better by becoming a smart investor or trader, you will have a more realistic chance of achieving your dreams and goals. The key is to make sure your dreams and goals are realistic and believable to you. Some of the goals you create will be easy to come by while others that are more important should be challenging, you need to push yourself outside of your comfort zone.
So you have decided that you want to become a day trader to earn the extra money, which will be needed to purchase your dream home. One of your goals right now is to own a home by the ocean. When creating goals, you need to write them down on paper or better yet on your computer for easy updating. When writing your goal, you should be as descriptive as possible. Don’t just write, I want a house in Florida on the ocean. Get creative with your dreams and goals, and let your imagination run wild. What style of home do you dream of? Ranch style or two story house? 4,000 square feet or 10,000 square feet? What are the colors? How many bedrooms and bathrooms does it have? Can you visualize the design? Does it have a pool in the backyard? If so, is it kidney-shaped or rectangular? If so write it down. The more details the better.
There will be times when you create one goal and you will find that you need to set another goal that you will need to get the bigger goal you created. Think of goal setting like a recipe needed to make a fancy meal, or to bake a cake. If you leave something out of a recipe, you are betting on the outcome of that recipe.
If you are planning to become a profitable day trader, what are the obstacles that may stand in your way? What is required to help you achieve your goal of becoming a day trader?
Some examples of obstacles:
1. Having sufficient funds to fund your trading account.
2. Get the proper education to become a profitable trader.
3. Does your spouse or partner support your idea of becoming a day trader?
4. Is your current job or occupational schedule causing a problem at work?
toward achieving your goal?
5. Is there a local or online support group?
6. Finding the right broker for my needs.
The above are just a few examples of some of the hurdles that you have to jump over to get you on your way towards achieving your goal as a day trader. To overcome the obstacles you may encounter, you will need to work on possible solutions. If one of your hurdles is the need to find more cash to help fund your trading account. You will need to carefully and a lot to think of ways to do this, maybe you have an old collection of coins or other collectibles that you can sell to raise the required capital. If there is a will, there is a way!
Everyone will have their own hurdles to get over. Always make sure that it is money you can afford to lose and that it will not change your current lifestyle.
Don’t set unrealistic deadlines on your goals and dreams. Some of your goals may be ongoing without a deadline, and other simple goals will have deadlines. Looking at the above hurdles, you can see that some of the above can be accomplished in a matter of days or a week at most. Proper education may take months or longer. Even then, you will have an ongoing goal to keep improving as a trader for years to come. It can take a few years, predictably, to achieve the goal of a home by the ocean, with the goal of becoming a successful day trader.
With breaking down what is required to become a successful day trader comes the need to set smaller goals. Creating daily tasks that help you achieve your goals is key. Create a daily plan of attack and work on your planning each day. Stay focused and look back each day to make sure you’ve made progress. Always create smaller goals, which are achievable on a daily basis and which will give you energy and encouragement to work towards the bigger goal. Some of the other major components that you will need to work on are the psychological components. If you need to improve your patience, create a goal in your descriptive written details to show a lot of patience while trading. If you need to improve being more decisive, do the same exercise as with patience. The key is to become more aware of what is really needed to achieve your goal.
It is not as simple as saying that I want to be a successful trader. You find the recipe first and collect all the ingredients and work together. The key to achieving your goals is to take your time and be careful to do whatever is necessary to reach your end result. Work on all the little details each day and focus and give the main focus to the daily task and see the daily progress.
Quick review of goal setting
1. Create a dream list
2. Review the list to see if the dreams are realistic, practical, and believable.
3. Write descriptive details of your dreams in a positive statement as they have already been achieved.
4. Create a list of all the obstacles you will need to overcome to achieve your goals.
5. Create a sub-list of workable goals that can be achieved within a week.
6. Make a daily plan of attack and the action you plan.
7. Create a daily to-do list to work on every day.
8. Review each day, week and month to review your progress.
9. Always adjust your goals higher once you have achieved the set goal.
10. Always have ongoing goals that never end.
11. If you encounter a stall, or if there is a problem or setback, always find a different angle to try.
12. Never give up! If there is a will, there is always a way
