Have a Growth Mindset
Posted on 8th February 2022
To be a successful trader we need to have a growth mindset, rather than a fixed mindset.
This means that you have to believe that through hard work, dedication and education, you have the ability to improve and become successful at what you are trying to achieve. Rather than have the limiting beliefs that the skills we need to be successful are unattainable or believe that you are either ‘born with the gift or not’’.
When you are on your trading journey, you will experience many hurdles. There will be times when you will feel like giving up. You will feel no matter how hard you try, it will be 2 steps forward and 2 steps back. But isn’t this true for life in general?
‘’Nothing great ever came that easy’’
When we are in the learning phase of any new skill-based education journey, we will always make mistakes – this is why we are going through an education process – to improve our ability to perform better at the task at hand. If mistakes are expected, and we know that it will be tough (why should anything be that easy), then why should we give up or chastise ourselves for going through the process that would be expected of us?
“Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.” - Richard Branson
Every mistake we make in trading – and life in general for that matter – is an opportunity for us to grow and improve. Rather than create an environment of negative self-talk, where you tell yourself you cannot achieve something just because you made a mistake, take responsibility, and grasp the opportunity to learn from the mistake and grow.
I read an article, written by a tennis coach that said, they were confident they knew which youngsters were going to make it, not by their sheer natural ability. But by the ones that saw a weakness in their game as an opportunity to improve as a player.
I’m a firm believer that one of your biggest strengths is knowing what your weaknesses are. By being able to identify your weaknesses, we know the areas that we need to work on to improve; or at the very least, put processes in place to mitigate the impact they have on performance.
So next time you make a mistake, do not give up. Do not be hard on yourself. Seize the opportunity to grow and take the next step forward to Make. It. Happen.
Share this post: