Habit #5: Keep Your Goals in Front of You
Have you ever played a game where you were unsure of the rules or objective? You understood you were playing a game and had to win…
But you didn’t know how.
That would certainly be a frustrating experience. You probably wouldn’t even bother playing.
Common sense would tell us that no one would ever play a game without understanding the rules.
Yet people do this all the time in real life when it comes to their dreams or the goals they want to achieve.
How can you achieve your trading goals and win big if you never keep them in front of you?
Why You Need Your Goals in Front of You
This is another habit you have to master. Keeping your goals in front of you is all about having an external form of self-awareness.
Whether you write them down or keep them in some vision boards, you are going to need a constant reminder that follows you wherever you go.
It’s important to always keep the objective in focus. How else will you know what you’re working towards?
A successful trader always has goals they keep visible and track. Likewise, you know a good trade is likely when it hits certain metrics for you to act on.
According to psychology professor from Dominican University of California, Dr. Gail Matthews reports you are 42 percent more likely to follow through on goals that are written down. What common-sense trader wouldn’t take those odds?
Now don’t feel bad if this habit isn’t part of your repertoire. Forming a new habit takes time and there are so many reasons why people never keep their goals in front of them.
Life, after all…gets in the way.
But it’s never too late to learn something new.
How To Keep Your Goals In Front of You
Remember, keeping your goals in front of you may serve as the guidelines or objectives. But they are also the end goal. And how you go about it…
Is up to you.
But as long as you keep them in front of you, you’ll stay on the right path.
- Write them down: Writing your goals down increases the odds of completing them. That’s because you are moving information from one place (your head) to multiple mediums that you can track and document in the real world. This also reduces decision fatigue.
- Use visual reminders: Aside from writing your goals down, you can use visual reminders of them as well. If you always wanted to go on vacation somewhere sunny, you can have pictures of your favorite beaches nearby. It can give you the motivation you need.
- Place them everywhere: Place as many of your trading goals everywhere you can see them. Make it your wallpaper. Put them on sticky notes on the fridge. Keep notes in your wallet. Prop up the whiteboard. Use a calendar. Set daily, weekly, and monthly reminders on your phone. Use task-tracking apps such as Trello. You may think it’s extreme but traders always keep an eye on their accounts. You have to do the same for your goals.
- Share your goals with like-minded people: You can also join a trading forum or group. One way to keep your goals in front of you is to have people behind you in support. You can also have an accountability partner from said group. This way, you always have someone to keep you in check because your success is theirs as well. Even though your goals may differ, it’s always nice to share your goals with people you can relate to and show some support.
Keep Your Eyes on The Prize
As a trader, whatever you don’t measure can not be improved. And if you don’t take a chance of improving your odds at success, then you leave money on the table.
The same goes for tracking your goals and keeping them in places you can see and modify at all times.
They will serve as your guidelines and the objective to helping you win big.
Keep your eyes on the prize.