Friday, February 28, 2014

How You Know You're On the Right Track in Your Trading

This is the first picture we have of Naomi, our second youngest rescue cat.  She had been traumatized at an early age and it took a great deal of work to bring her out of her shell.  A future post will tell all about Naomi and what she taught me about bouncing back from adversity.

After I wrote the post on doing well and doing good, I realized that I had come up with a pretty good litmus test for whether performance activities are worthwhile or not.  The worthwhile ones make you better across many areas of life:  they teach you life lessons and give you positive energy.  Raising Naomi gave me sensitivity and patience.  She pushed me to be a better human being, because that was the only way to pull her from hiding.

The wrong performance activities--and especially the right ones pursued the wrong way--consume your energy.  They bury the best within you.  Trading can be an energizing, meaningful performance crucible, but pursued addictively it becomes a destroyer of capital and families. 

When Naomi looks at me now with love in her eyes, I feel a pride in being a part of bringing her out of her trauma.  You want your trading to make you feel the same way:  proud of the person it pushed you to become.

Further Reading:  Turning Frustration Into Pride