Becoming an experienced trader doesn’t happen overnight, right? Of course it doesn’t.

When you first begin, you might be intimidated, lost, and overwhelmed. One of your friends or a colleague may be making more money than you, and you begin to compare your results to others.

Stop right there.

Don’t compare your performance to anyone. You are your own trader. Your profits and losses are yours, and while someone else may lose on the same trade, your individual performance is the only thing you should be focused on.

What I’ve found is that new traders become easily discouraged. It’s natural and believe me, I’ve been there, and so has everyone else!

That’s the one instance that we all share as we develop into successful traders.

Everyone’s path is different, but we all start at the bottom.

Take anything in life. For example, starting a new sport.

You step on the field for your first game. Everything seems to be moving quickly, and you feel pressured, like you don’t have enough time to react to what’s going on. You get flustered, feel rushed, and it doesn’t feel like you’re in control. To an extent, it can be scary, but it’s natural.

Fast forward a few months down the road, maybe even a year, and you’ve developed some experience. You don’t have any more extra time than you did before, but things seem to slow down, because you’ve not only improved, but you develop confidence in your abilities and trust your judgement.

That is the definition of control. You lack control until you gain confidence and composure, and the only way to get there is by practicing, slowly becoming more comfortable, and learning to deal with obstacles that you face every day.

This is easily applied to trading. Not much moves quicker than the stock market. You jump in thinking everything is going to be a walk in the park.

That’s a mistake.

Instead, take your time. Embrace that initial feeling of being overwhelmed. Focus on developing a better understanding and strive to improve each day. Focus on your composure. Focus on the ability to deal with obstacles and opportunities as they present themselves each and every day.

Practice that composure and in time, that chaos you were once exposed to will begin to calm.

It’s not a race to the top. It’s a steady journey. Individually, we work through it in our own way, but we all share in the journey.  

Don’t be discouraged. It’s easy to feel like we don’t have control over a situation, but control isn’t handed to you on a silver platter. It’s developed over time.