Your Success Goal Is Not The Problem

A very popular saying goes like this:  It’s the destination, not the journey”.

Simply stated, enjoy the road you are taking on the way to your goal. It makes sense especially since the only thing you can really control IS the journey – the steps you take – because goals can be elusive.

The importance of goal setting for success in just about anything is vital.

Let’s be real though.

Most people don’t set goals and those that do, never go far enough in reaching them.

 

Business That Thrives On Failure

Take a gym for example. They love the January of every year as many make fitness goals and head to the gym to reach them. After paying membership fees and going a few times, many start to fade away.

Come the summer, the only people still there are the committed and those that don’t focus entirely on the goal.

Flashing back to my younger years, I had a goal to reach certain weights in the power lifting core lifts. If that is where it stopped, I’d never had gotten them. I am grateful to have been exposed to the book “Mastery” by George Leonard so many years ago because that has influenced everything that I have and still want to achieve.

 

The Importance Of The Path

The goal was important but what was also important was the way or the system/path I would use to attain it. The goal zeroed in on the result but I needed a way to get the result.

  1. I started with schedules of when I would train.
  2. I worked out when and how much to increase the weight to continue progressing heavier.
  3. I factored in rest periods and weeks where I would back off on intensity.
  4. I ate differently on training days than I did on days I would not train.
  5. The system was written down and followed.

Have to admit that I didn’t meet a goal on one of the exercise but that is not what was important. I do have to say that when I thought of the goal by itself, I was disappointed in not achieving it. Looking at the plan I followed, I was extremely proud that I stuck to each step I laid out.

 

Goal Not Reached But Big Improvements

I vastly improved from when I started to when I measured the one lift that never reached the target weight. As it turns out, the goal was not as important as the route I took to achieve it.

To be even more accurate, I started to forget the actual goal and focused on the steps I was taking towards it.

Goals and contingencies are important. But they exist in the future and the past, beyond the pale of the sensory realm. Practice (the path of mastery) exists only in the present. – George Leonard

I focused on the training and schedule. I focused on the eating. I focused on the rest and the scaling up in weight. The goal by itself was meaningless if I didn’t take steps towards it. The outcome was always up in the air but what wasn’t was the system I laid out to achieve what I set my sights on as well as the incremental improvements that came from each step on the journey.

 

How Is This About Trading Success?

“I want to be a profitable trader”.

Alright, that’s a goal that is stated by 99% of those entering the trading world. How will you do it? Most use the “wash, rinse, repeat” style of education where they hop from one trading system to another.

The goal never changes but the system they are using does and it is usually a dead end road with most giving up. It is a haphazard approach at best. I am not going to get into what makes up successful trading because on our website at https://www.netpicks.com/, there is a ton of information to help you on that road.

Take a piece of paper and write out on the top “I want to be a profitable trader”.

Below that, start writing out what you think you must do to attain that.

You could start with:

  • Spend 2 hours every day learning your trading method inside and out until you can rattle of 25 mistake free executions
  • Learn and understand risk management and capital exposure so well that you could teach it
  • Read about successful traders and their thought process when it comes to trading

There are others that you could list but the point is to have concrete items that you can focus on. Focus on them with clarity and with quality execution. Be diligent.

Trading is much more than just pushing buttons.

It encompasses many variables and one thing that gets overlooked by many is the mental approach to HOW you approach trading. I think the book I mentioned above can help you on your trading journey.

 

The Why Behind Your Goal

We all hit rough patches where it seems that giving up is the best route to take.  I think everyone at one time or another have thought about getting off the journey.

What helps keep you grounded and focused on the success goal, is the “why” behind what you do.  They why has to be so compelling that it affects you when you think about it.

Since this is a trading blog, let’s look at one goal that many state:  make more money.

I talk about the “why” in a recent trading article and how important it is to keep driving you forward (and why money is not a great motivator).  You can do virtually anything if the “driver’ behind the goal is strong enough.

The key is to put the steps on the journey AND the why together.

The “why” behind the cumulative steps you will take to reach your goal.

For traders, it could be something as basic as sticking to one method of trading and see where that leads.  Build the habits you need to execute the strategy and trade plan you have chosen.

Consistency is a muscle that needs to be worked.  The only way you can do that is to have an outline of your approach to the markets every day.

Many may need things already set in motion and that is where something like the High Velocity Wave Trader comes into play.

It’s a structured trading system complete with a methodology plus the trade plans behind it.  It will give you a chance to truly be consistent simply because all the setups are plotted directly on the chart for you.

You then trade them according to the tested trade plans that are provided.

It does not have to get more complicated than this:

  1.  Set your goal
  2.  Set your why
  3.  Set your steps
  4.  Review your goal, your why and commit to the steps.

The formula is pretty simple really.  It just takes commitment to see it through.



Author: CoachShane
Shane his trading journey in 2005, became a Netpicks customer in 2008 needing structure in his trading approach. His focus is on the technical side of trading filtering in a macro overview and credits a handful of traders that have heavily influenced his relaxed approach to trading. Shane started day trading Forex but has since transitioned to a swing/position focus in most markets including commodities and futures. This has allowed less time in front of the computer without an adverse affect on returns.