What we attach our egos to controls us.
If trades and trading are our only activities filled with purpose, we will overtrade. If we judge our success and failure by profits and losses, our moods will rise and fall with market conditions.
It sounds so great: the "passion" for trading. Too often, however, that belies an ego-attachment to trading.
So how do we take the ego out of trading?
By tapping into the soul.
Meaningful relationships tap into the soul. Worthy causes and challenges speak to the soul. Appreciation of the world--from art and music to travel--nourishes the soul. Our religious beliefs awaken the soul. Playing an important role in the lives of others, developing our potential in various life areas, learning and creating new things--all take us out of our narrow egos and connect us with larger meanings and purposes.
We take trades we shouldn't and avoid the ones we should because we're using the ego of trading to fill soul needs. If we work on our trading to the point of neglecting the rest of our lives, we are like bodybuilders who obsessively develop their upper bodies while their middle sections go flabby and their legs are like twigs.
A great first step in taking the ego out of trading is evaluating our trading by process criteria, not by profits and losses alone. If we focus on placing good trades, our trading can build mindfulness, intentionality, and resilience.
At the end of the day, however, trading cannot sustain us always, in all ways. We need not just the pleasures, victories, and gratifications of the ego, but also the energy, connectedness, and fulfillment of the soul. It is amazing how much easier it is to tackle trading challenges when trading is not burdened with needs it was never meant to fill.
The question is not simply whether we live a successful life or an unsuccessful one. The question is whether we live a full life or an empty one.
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