This one barrier is blocking your success. Here’s how to remove it …

I expect most people can think of a whole list of reasons why they haven’t set
out on an investment strategy. Stuff like …

… I don’t have the spare cash right now
… I don’t have the spare time
… It probably won’t work anyway

Sound familiar?

But I’ve good news for the cash-strapped, the time-poor … and the sceptic …

A good, solid investment program needn’t take up much time at all. Yes, you can spend hours out of your day on it … or you can spend just a few minutes a month on it.

Don’t get me wrong, time is important, but it’s not the time you spend on investments that matters … it’s about leaving those investments to grow. That means sticking with the program long-term. No, you won’t find life-changing profits in the next few months, but stick at it for a couple of years, and you’ll really know the difference.

And the same is true about the size of your starting fund. Yes, that may be a measure of your wealth (right now), but it isn’t a measure of your financial power. Financial power is about a mindset that isn’t blown off course by a few failures … or by that sometimes overwhelming feeling that we’re having to start at the bottom.

It can feel overwhelming to start at the beginning … and those first baby steps can be frustrating … but start flexing those financial muscles and you’ll soon feel the strength of them grow.

But I haven’t yet addressed the elephant in the room … “Will it actually make me any money?”

‘Fear of failure’ is often given a tough press. It’s seen as a weakness, or an irrational worry.

But a rational fear of failure – along with a healthy dose of skepticism – can be a good thing. It can keep us from doing some really stupid stuff, like jumping off high walls, taking up base jumping, or engaging with people who ring us up to tell us there’s a virus on our computer …

If you’re trading the markets, it’s unlikely that you won’t come face to face with failure at some point. We all take losses along the way. So, to be fearful of that failure is very sensible and rational. It’s those traders who are gung-ho about failure who’ll overstretch themselves, and blow out.

Where fear of failure becomes debilitating is where an fear is standing in the way of you achieving your goals.

This means taking a hard look at what those potential failures are: What could you lose … both in terms of money, and time? What’s the worst-case scenario? And how could you limit your risk so that worst-case won’t happen? And what are the potential rewards? Are they worth taking that degree of risk for?

By rationalizing your fears, you can control them and use them to regulate your behaviour, rather than letting them control you and keep you from your goals.

Or perhaps it’s your goals that need to be rationalized in order to bring risk under control.

For example, let’s say that your goal is to double your fund of £5,000 over the next year … but you’re fearful that a losing streak could make a serious dent in your trading fund. That’s not an irrational fear – any trading system that make 100%+ gains is going to have volatility. By adjusting your goals to a smaller return, you can reduce your risk.

Rational optimism

We often hear about unfailing optimists who attribute their success to their positive outlook. We hear less from the blind optimists who fell along the way.

Effective optimism is about more than wearing a smile and looking on the bright side. It’s about being a realist, but also having a positive attitude to the truth, and to the future. The rational optimism has an unswerving belief that success is ahead, but they are also well prepared for the pitfalls along the way.

And that’s exactly the way to make a success of your investments.

Look hard at your goals. Look hard at your risk. One doesn’t eliminate the other – they just need to find balance. And then your path to success is clear.

(If you’re unsure about risks involved on any investment method you find on the Trader’s Bulletin site, please ask – or post a comment on the site – to get some clear guidance.)

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The real reason you’re missing trading opportunities Your 6 biggest fears about investing