It’s time for a pep talk...

t’s time for a pep talk... Louise Bedford on how to develop the lifestyle you’ve always dreamed of.

ne thing that has been irritating me lately is stinginess. There’s a heck of a lot of it floating around. If your fist is squeezed tight so money cannot escape, it also means that money will have a hard time flowing into your trading account.

own list, but here is mine: education, meaningful experiences and appreciating assets. These are the things that will make a difference both now and in the future.

I'm not talking about the frivolous wasting of money. I'm talking about investing in yourself and your own education, and having an abundant mindset with things that are really important to you. There will always be more money and more opportunities in your future for you. There isn’t a shortage. However, if you are too self-protective, and you guard your own spending too vigorously, the money will find a different home (and it will probably be with that cow from work who keeps on talking about how ‘great’ things are going for her).

‘Things’ don’t impress me, but experiences do. I’m not into expensive toys. Sure I can afford them, but it’s just that I don’t really want them. I live well within my means. Yes, I could buy more, bigger and better houses, couches, cars... but it’s just not all that important to me. Surrounding myself with great people who push me beyond my comfort zone, having top conversations and creating memories for my friends and family is what pumps me up. I’m not into competing with others about how much stuff I own.

The other day, someone actually had the gumption to tell me they thought their YTE subscription was expensive! Really? I mean... really? Compared to the ‘education’ that the market has been

Feeling stressed out? Well, it’s not surprising given the current market conditions. The markets have been flailing about like a great white shark that has been yanked out of the water onto a near-capsizing fishing boat (I O

Cheap behaviour breeds a scarcity mindset and ‘poor’ thinking. If money is tight, go out and do something small but special for yourself and savour it. Buy a Lindor ball, or have a cuppa at the Windsor, or some other swish hotel – and really own the experience. Remind yourself about why you wanted to be a trader in the first place.

But forget about me. Focus on you. Distracting, seductive, addictive items besiege you every day, everywhere you look. Beware. Just because others are sinking their money into the useless bottomless pit of the latest phone, TV or piece of technology that will be outdated in nanoseconds doesn’t mean that you have to. The fact that so many are seduced tells me that you can’t afford handing out with brutal force to all traders who aren’t prepared to swat up on the latest market techniques? Far out – let’s put some of these things into perspective.

to be. Who wants to be just like the masses? Surely you want to stand apart from the masses and hold your head up high?

Cheap behaviour breeds a scarcity mindset and ‘poor’ thinking. If money is tight, go out and do something small but special for yourself and savour it. Buy a Lindor ball, or have a cuppa at the Windsor, or some other swish hotel – and really own the experience. Remind yourself about why you wanted to be a trader in the first place.

The only person you’re competing with is you. Stop envying what others have got. Run your own race, focus on getting educated, and get your priorities in order. You create success by knuckling down and seriously applying yourself to something in a persistent, dedicated and focussed way.

Most people have spent their next pay rise before it even runs through their bank account. They have spent everything, plus more! They’ll never be rich, and they’ll never live with an abundance mentality. Because you’re reading this article, I know you’ll never be that type of person.

Bruce Lee said: “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” Be clear on your goals, pursue education (with your feet flying and your arms flailing) and don’t let distraction evaporate your dreams.

The beauty of living below your means is clear – but few people do it. They stress, and strive, trying to buy more and more things to impress people they don’t even like – but they don’t spend on the things that really count. So, what does count? Make your

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SEP/OCT 2011 It’s time for a pep talk...

recently caught a Jaws re-run). No wonder you feel like you need a little pep talk, just to help you get through.

I can tell you now – you’re not alone. There are lots of traders feeling exactly the same way you’re feeling at the moment. There’s no doubt about it, the markets are only for those courageous souls who know the importance of holding their heads up high and following their trading plans, while everything else around them is reduced to rubble.

When you first start trading, the importance of being able to handle your own stress levels may not seem to be a priority. In fact, if you haven't placed any money in the market, you may wonder why traders feel any pressure at all! Let me tell you, I felt the same way about golf until my first serious game of pitch and putt. “What’s all the fuss about? You’re only chasing a little white ball down the paddock. How hard can that be?” I thought to myself. After my first ball dropped into the pond, and my second ball failed to connect with my golf club - seven times (but who’s counting?), I realised there must be more to this game. A minor hissy fit erupted, and I now understand why golfers spend years just getting the basics down.

There are so many people out there giving advice, it’s hard to know who to trust. Who is producing the top traders of tomorrow? To be blunt, there are a lot of flash-in-the-pan trainers out there who have only limited experience and couldn’t produce a profit if you gave them tomorrow’s newspaper.

Choose your mentors wisely. One criterion when choosing a mentor is longevity. If your trainer hasn’t been around long enough to see the valleys as well as the peaks, you’ll be in for a bumpy ride on your way towards achieving success in the markets. Make the wrong decision and you could be left up in the air.

Almost every individual performing at an elite level in any field was encouraged by at least one mentor, or a group of supporters to excel. This made the difference between whether the individual achieved brilliance or whether their raw talent withered on the vine, like an unripened fruit. Your shortcut to success in the market may just be finding a person with the passion and the drive to help you succeed.

Do you have passion? One of the things I’ve noticed about effective traders is that they have passion. Passion for trading, or the results that trading can bring to their life. Traders aren’t wishy-washy sort of people. We are the type of people who jump into a project without knowing the exact boundaries, where the goal posts are always shifting, and only the nimble, yet disciplined survive.

There is an ocean of difference between ‘desire’ and ‘passion’. Desire is fickle, ever changing and gets its head turned easily when something more attractive walks into the room. Passion is enduring, long lasting, and unrelenting.

You would be amazed of the hundreds of people that I bump into in training seminars and coaching sessions who just aren’t living their life purpose. It blows me away to think of the wasted opportunities that are repressed because of fear, or because these people lack someone to help get them started.

Tut, tut, tut. I can hear you making excuses already. “You don’t understand. I’m sick/tired/hard done by. It’s not my fault. It’s my brother’s/sister’s/mother’s/father’s/wife’s/husband’s fault. I’ve been busy/crazy/stuck in the Atlantic on a leaky boat for the past six months.”

Well, my friend. I’ve heard them all (well, maybe not the last one). Now... how do I say this with love? Here it goes…

Suck it up princess! There are people who have had things go far worse than the measly excuses you’ve just offered me for why your life isn’t on target. And – they are running happily towards their goals, often bringing a lot of other enthusiastic people with them at the same time. There is no such thing as a rich victim.

You need to embody your purpose with all of your senses, and dump your excuses before they take hold of your life.

And the next time I bump into you and I look you in the eye and say, “Hey, what have you been up to?” – I’d love to hear more than a deadened “Not much”. I want you to smile and say with absolute certainty “Louise, I have been doing what I was born to do.” Don’t be like everyone else. Refuse to blend in with the crowd.

If you talk to people outside our cosy little YTE environment, you may be in for a rude shock. They don’t think like us, and they don’t talk like us.

People who are not traders can think of traders as having an interesting hobby, or that traders are gamblers. They might believe traders depend on luck and wonder why traders don’t get a ‘real job’. They think traders use gut instinct to make a living.

I believe the following: • Traders shun being mediocre. • Trading skills can be learned, but only the few committed people who choose to focus perfect them. • Traders are the essence of the entrepreneurial spirit. • Good traders adapt, yet stay 100 per cent loyal to their trading plans. • Traders are snipers, striking hard when the trade reveals itself. • Traders choose to follow their dreams. • Traders give time to their families, and money to the community. While others shrink from the thought of failure and loss, we relish it. We know that loyalty to our trading plan will bring us one step closer to an outrageous win.

You deserve to be living your life’s purpose. And I hope that purpose includes trading with confidence so you can develop the lifestyle for you and your family that others only dare to dream about. This was your pep talk – now go out there and dance up a storm.

Louise Bedford (www.tradinggame.com.au) is a full-time private trader and author of The Secret of Writing Options, The Secret of Candlestick Charting, Charting Secrets and Trading Secrets. Register now on her website to receive a free 5-part e-course.

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