8 tricks to stay motivated

You know that fired-up feeling? You’ve just read a great article about how easily you can make a change in your life … or you’ve just had a success and you feel unstoppable?

These are the magical moments that trigger us into action. To make the changes in our lives that we want to, but have been dithering over.

But it’s just not possible to stay in that magical fired-up state all the time.

And that’s why most diets, fitness regimes, and New Year resolutions end in failure.

I’m currently less than 2 months away from my first half Ironman race. I’ve been working towards this for the last year, training 6 days a week.

Am I feeling fitter, stronger and faster than ever before?

The truth is that I hurt.

It hurts when I wake up in the morning. It hurts when go to bed at night. It even hurts when I tie my shoelaces.

Making changes in our lives and working towards our goals may start out in a blaze of optimism, but when it comes to the day-to-day processes, it can be a grind.

Making money from the markets is not so different to sticking to any other kind of life-changing regime – it has its ups, it’s downs, and while our goals are exciting, the daily trading regime is (if you’re doing it right) pretty mundane.

When the money is flowing into your account, it’s easy to spring out of bed and fire up your spread-bet account. But when you’re in slow patch, or giving back profits … that’s when we start to wonder if it’s all really worthwhile.

So, how do we stay motivated?

Top of the motivation list is …

1. Routine

Are your daily routines supporting or hindering your success? If they’re not helping, then you need to change them so they do support you.

My weekly routine is build around my training schedule, so I’ve no excuses to skip exercising. My training is my priority, and everything else fits in around that (apologies to my family).

Perhaps it’s a lack of imagination on my part that if my calendar tells me I should be at the pool training, that’s where I get in the car and go. But it’s this routine that gets us through the boring, tough parts – we just keep plodding on.

2. The plan

This weekly routine is also part of a longer-term plan, with goals that I’m working towards and targets I expect to reach by certain dates.

3. Measuring

Obviously, the setting goals won’t work unless you’re measuring your performance.

If I was just blindly pounding the pavements with no idea of the distance I was covering or the time I was doing it in, I’d never get an idea of my progression, and would quickly lose motivation.

When trying to achieve a goal, measuring is a vital part of keeping on track and staying motivated. (With that in mind, if you’re not yet using the Trader’s Bulletin journal, you can still download it HERE.)

4. Sharing

Talking through triumphs and set-backs with other like-minded people helps to keep things in perspective. We find out that other people are actually going through very similar journeys to our own – so maybe we shouldn’t get so carried away with short-term successes, or so set back by losses.

But remember the value of surrounding yourself with positive people. Negative talk can take our focus away from our goals – build your own support team, not a ‘gripe group’

5. Face problems head-on … then move on …

What stops us from trading? Taking losses.

Plan what you will do when you have a losing run, so that you’re not over-exposed risk-wise, and you don’t need to go into panic mode. If a run of losses means that you sit out of the market for a while, keep up with your trading in demo mode – still measuring all your results. This will build your confidence in your trading methods, and keep the all-important routines intact.

And if you make errors, don’t let them halt you in your tracks. Learn from them, and move on.

6. Accept differences

Just as the length of my arms and the state of my aging knees affects how I swim and run … no two investors are the same.

The amount of capital you have … the time you have to spend trading … your attitude to risk … your experience … all these affect what your equity curve will look like.

Set your own goals rather than compare how you do compared to the next man.

7. Goals

In the past I’ve preached the value of having goals that are ‘realistic’ and ‘achievable’ … and I’ll stand by this wisdom for short-term goals.

But our long-term goals should be more ambitious – we should be striving towards something that makes the graft and the grind all worthwhile.

Don’t be shy with your long-term goals – that you can pay off your mortgage … build financial security for your family … make a substantial nest egg for your family …

All of these things are achievable.

But not in the next 6 months.

Break your goals down in achievable, measurable steps, and reward yourself as you hit these targets.

Don’t overlook these achievements – they may seem minor in relation to your long term goal, but each step you take on your journey is a success worth celebrating.

8. Love the journey

And finally, the all-important piece of the puzzle – the reason that I haul myself out of bed and into the swimming pool for a training session while my family are still asleep – for all the pain and the grind, I love it.

Yes, we should try not to get too emotional with our trading, but we’re not robots. We have to do this because we do get a thrill from the chase … a rush of endorphins … pleasure in building on our achievements … and satisfaction from every little step closer to our ultimate goal.

I’m off to the gym …