**The below post was written a few weeks ago and I didn't realise I hadn't published it until right now**
It finally happened. I reached a goal, a milestone in my trading which I have had since the very first trade I placed. To make 100+ points in a single week. To, many that's not a big deal, in fact there are many people who make more than that in single trades, but to me, it is everything. It has meaning, significance, just as it does in life. Fore example, there are 100 pence to a pound. 100 degrees is the boiling point of water. The sum of the first nine odd numbers is 100 (you just added them up didn't you? You did, because when I read it, I did too.) An American football field is 100 yards long. You get the idea. Its significance and relevance is everywhere. But this post is not a brag about me making bank, it's about something in trading that is considered a no no especially if you intend to make a living out of trading.
Celebrating.
A lot of what I have read from people whom I personally admire and feel in my opinion have helped me develop as a trader all say the same thing with regards to both winning and losing in trading. Neither should illicit an emotional response. We shouldn't celebrate our wins and nor should we rue our losses. In the ideal trading mindset they should each have no effect on our psychology. Trading is about process and our ability to follow that process no matter the outcome, and no matter what has come before. Of course, this is easier said than done because to do it you have to fight your very nature, but it is a fight you can win. This is what makes trading, good trading, not only counterintuitive to our natural (learned?) feelings and instincts, but almost unique in the world. Can you think of a single other instance, in anything, that when you win or are winning, you don't celebrate? Sports?. No. Gambling?. No. Competitive events or any kind? No. Getting good grades? No. I cannot think of a single thing that if you are successful at it, you don't celebrate that success in some way. So when can we celebrate in trading?
For me personally, it is in realising certain goals or milestones for the first time. Once a goal has been reached once, it can be reached again and again, but it can only be reached for the first time, once. In reaching it, it is no longer a goal, it's now an accomplishment and accomplishments are special. The word itself sounds special when you say it. It has a certain seriousness to it, a depth. It suggests that something wasn't easy to attain, it was earned and not given. Additionally, according to a number of psychologists, celebrating is good for us. It can help reduce stress. It releases the feel=good chemicals. It makes us pause and be mindful which leads to reflection and observation of our progress which in turn can help bolster our resilience in times of hardship because we can look back and see that we have had success. This acknowledgement and realisation of previous successes can help us ride out the storm of doubt into the calmer waters of confidence when we next experience difficult times. But not only that, it can help us to better prepare and to motivate us to learn more and thus adapt and increased knowledge may lead to possibly less mistakes, so we won't actually go through as many difficult times as we may done have without celebrating. It can help change our mindset. Celebrating can be used as a tool to help us work towards a success mindset. When you celebrate success you no longer see yourself as someone trying to be successful, you are successful. Think about the differences in mindset between those two people. It can lead to the achieving of other goals, which brings more success and so on and so on...
So, celebrating is not as bad as it is made out, in fact when applied correctly it can actually help advance your trading. With that said, let the celebrating commence. I'm off to buy myself a beer and a nice slice of cheesecake because I think I've earned it.
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