7 Steps on the Path to Success

Photo Credit: Andy Walton

People measure success in many different ways. Some people measure it in money, Possessions, careers, love, power, security, or fame. I measure success by how happy I am. Freedom makes me happy, and so do my friends and family. I love learning new things and doing things I am passionate about. In life, we will only get back what we give. We will only be rewarded for the risks we take. Only time separates us from our goals.

What is your plan for happiness? Follow these steps and realize joy in your lifetime.

1. Don’t do things half-way. Only do things that you are passionate about. If you can’t do something with all of your heart, then continue to look for your true calling. Then do it to the best of your ability.
2. Know where you are going. If you don’t know where you are going, your decisions and destinations will be a random result of your environment.  Goals take time, perseverance, and effort. Most people never accomplish anything because they quit too early, don’t work hard enough, and don’t finish.
3. Don’t get lost. The path to happiness and success will be treacherous and foreboding at times. Don’t go down the wrong path for too long. Remain agile enough to change direction quickly.
4. Don’t allow losers into your life. You must conserve your energy for your passions. You have a limited amount of time and energy to invest in the things you want in life. Invest your energies into the people and the projects that share and/or understand your passions.
5.  Choose who you spend your time with carefully. You are the average of the people you spend the most time with, and you will become like them. They will influence you for good or bad. Accept the right people into your life, and both of your lives will be the richer for it.
6. Visualize your happiness. Every night when you go to bed, imagine how you want your life to be in the future. Experience it, believe it, lock on to that as your goal. Then focus on becoming the person that can live the life of your dreams.
7. Happiness is found in accomplishment. Living the life you choose is satisfying, and you will be happier while exploring your life journey, rather than working a job. Waking up each morning with the freedom to spend your time and energy the way you chose is the embodiment of success 

The Power of Quitting

“It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.” -Bruce Lee

Quitting is not always the wrong thing to do. There is a time when you have to decide what you want and go get it, you do not stop until you reach your journey to your destination, this is when you are on the right path, following your passion, making progress, and loving the journey. There are other times to stop if you hit a dead end or you are heading in the wrong direction. People that eventually win learn to know the difference. There is a time to press through temporary pain to achieve long term success and a time to quit wasting your time with diminishing returns on a path that is just not working out and has little chance to work out because there is no joy, success, or progress on the wrong path.

Sometimes a marriage can not be saved through counseling it is just not going to work for many reasons. Sometimes a restaurant owner has worked 70 hour weeks for three years for the privilege of losing money and in deep debt, they are better off getting a job and at least get paid for there time and effort. No matter how much the Ford Motor Company believed in the Edsel or the federal government believed in the Chevrolet Volt they were making a mistake by continuing to produce them.

Cutting losses short is smart in all areas of life because it frees up resources to be used more wisely whether it is time, money, or energy.

Here are ten things that traders should stop doing where perseverance is the wrong thing to do.

1. Quit letting trades go through your original stop loss, you were wrong, get out. When you start hoping and stop managing your stops you are losing money, losing discipline, and fighting a trend.
2. Quit over trading, only take the very best entries and trade the very best stocks in your system.
3. Quit making up stories about why you decided to hold your position instead of taking your stop when it was hit. Trade your plan.
4. Stop trading your opinions and start trading what the price action is saying.
5. Stop following people in social media that cause you to be biased and trade badly and lose money.
6. Stop looking financial news networks for trading and investing advice, they are for news and entertainment.
7. Stop trading so big that your emotions are more involved in your trades than your mind.
8. Disconnect your ego from your trading. You determine your risk size and entry the market chooses whether you win or lose.
9. Quit riding an emotional roller coaster, your emotions should stay level whether winning or losing. If not, trade smaller.
10. Quit buying falling knives and shorting rocket stocks, wait for confirmation and a reversal before trying to short an uptrend or buy in a downtrend.
11. Quit trading your emotions and replace them with valid signals.
12. Quit having big losses and keep all losses small.
13. Quit asking for trade ideas and start looking for a trading system.
14. Quit agonizing over trading decisions and write a trading plan.
15. Quit listening to traders who claim to know the future and start following traders who make money trading in the present.

Sometimes in life what you quit is more important than what you start. Quitting the wrong things frees up your time, energy, and passion to pursue the right