One of the most intangible aspects of trading relates to how a trader's mindset develops and matures with time.

This is part of the reason why I like to spell out the arc of a trader's journey that I've witnessed time & time again.

As impractical as it seems, let me elaborate:

Most of you have probably heard me say in either a tweet or interview how I feel that a trader, with full effort, generally takes about 3 years to cross into parabolic growth.

This thread is not going to go over that, instead I want to spell out the emotions.

In the beginning, generally we're either ignorant or unaware of how we're taking a knife into a gun fight.

This leads us to take chances, to ignore best practices and to consistently feel like we're on the verge of a breakthrough, yet it's 1 step foward, 2 steps back.

During that time it would serve one very well to commit to two distinct mindsets.

1) Growth Mindset
2) Long-term Outlook

The sooner you adopt these, the easier it is to start accumulating experiences which compound on each other and accelerate this process.

Eventually you'll start to find a modicum of little wins and successes.

Even so, it's likely followed by a feeling of imposter syndrome.

That imposter syndrome is going to follow you even WITH edge, even WITH mentorship, even WITH major successes.

The key here is to persist and maintain YOUR best practices which give way for consistency, then scale.

Whether or not you're able to find that success, it doesn't matter that much because the part of you that feels like an imposter will still be there.

Continue to ignore that feeling and show up repeatedly following a process, a system and a commitment to absolute professionalism.

Show up, do the thing, rest and repeat, NO MATTER how you feel.

Eventually if you keep taking steps forward, that feeling gets weaker.

Eventually the fear, the anxiety and the emotion of feeling like a fish out of water despite your successes will dissipate.

And before I finish that point let me just say that I know what it's like to dread showing up the next day, to want to give up and to push myself to work.

Once you've experienced years of work and invariably proven to yourself through that willingness to show up, to follow your plans, your rules, your setups will produce results... where you can go back and reflect on your ups and downs, see where things got hard and how you've...

... overcome those obstacles, how you've learned from those mistakes and how you've come out just fine, sometimes even incredibly well...

THAT is when you're going to develop the maturity that's necessary as a trader to shed your insecurity, achieve your financial confidence...

... and to embody that intangible of trading which cannot be taught, which cannot be given, which cannot be duped.

THIS is a major part of trading, something I feel you have to survive long enough to experience. It will get easier and you CAN achieve this if you focus on...

... staying alive and managing that risk.

One of the most common mistakes I point out right away for people is that they are going in TOO big.

In the time before maturity want to bum rush through and size like they're completely aware of the unknown.

You cannot possibly be aware of how far you can go in this game with the right foundation and, in my opinion, you cannot take to the next level without pure time and experience.

While you wait for the feeling to wash over you, be humble and accept where you are.

Trading is so incomparable to any other profession imo... while you might dream to just be able to quit your job and make the same salary, it's just not the same.

Traders can make what the most successful careers make in a full year in a day, week, or even a trade.

Keep in mind that your commitment to developing yourself and gaining the necessary experience as a trader is a path that you are REQUIRED to walk.

Never ever focus on the money, never let yourself make excuses for missing the opportunity to learn from a mistake.

DO not walk away from the pain, rather embrace it and reset your emotions each and every day.

It fucking hurts and it will always hurt, but it'll sting a lot less the more you resolve to push forward.

I can only sum up our job as a trader in one gif and it is as follows...