Gird your loins and prepare yourself for an emotional trust circle of epic proportions! In today’s episode, hosts Tim Bohen and Stephen Johnson want to talk about self improvement and self care and how they can both make you a better trader.

Blame Tim: he just returned from a spiritual retreat that had nothing to do with drugs, and he wants to talk about how working on yourself can help improve your trading.

Believe it or not, Stephen’s on board, too: with his recent sobriety and weight loss regime, he’s become a believer in the idea that improved health and mental wellbeing can improve your entire life, including trading.

What’s going on here?

Recently, Tim went to a retreat with like minded individuals. While few attendees were in the financial sector, he learned lessons about being the best version of yourself that seemed extremely applicable to trading.

The fact is, you’re never going to become a successful trader until you adopt the right mindset. Tim shares a concept he’s adopted from podcast celeb Joe Rogan: how can you “be the hero of your own story”? What would go into your personal montage of success?

It’s an interesting idea to consider: if you had tv cameras following you around all the time like you were a Kardashian, what would you want to be your story?

Would you be like Stephen, who sometimes wakes up thinking “I want to work really hard today”…but other days wakes up and thinks “whiskey”?

How to get ahead by shattering your comfort zone

In the episode, Tim and Stephen share their best tips for how to break out of your comfort zone, and how it can ultimately help you as a trader, including:

• You must have a growth mindset. Nobody shows up day one and is the ultimate trader. There are always going to be ways in which you can improve. Tim and Stephen talk about some key ways to keep improving by surrounding yourself with people who are striving to become better.

For example, you might do this by joining a group that you find on Meetup, joining a movement like #soberoctober that will help hold you accountable to your self improvement.

• Discipline begets discipline. Tim jokes about how he and supertrader Tim Sykes argue about the “healthy body healthy mind shit” that Bohen is so into, but how ultimately, having discipline in one area, it can affect your work ethic in a good way.

The idea? If you adopt discipline in life, then you’re more likely to succeed in trading. So whether it’s fitness, family, or in the professional sphere, discipline in one arena can make it easier to maintain discipline in other parts of life too.   

• Get out of your comfort zone. Hey, did you know why host Tim wanted to take part in the SteadyTrade podcast? Because it gets lonely sitting in front of your computer as a full time trader, and he felt that it would be a good way to shift his perspective.

• Stepping outside of your comfort zone can give you a different point of view.  How could you shift your perspective in ways that might challenge you in all the right ways?

• A lot of people aspire to be full time traders, but that will require finding out what works for you in terms of learning and working. You might just find that things click even more when you connect with people in addition to having study time.  

How ‘bout a little challenge?

As the episode comes to a close, Tim proposes a Billy Madison (yes, like the Adam Sandler movie) challenge where he and Stephen go head to head in a physical and mental decathlon.

Should they do it? If so, what should be the exercises? Help them decide on some mental and physical exercises so we can all watch the games begin!

Got questions or comments?

Do you have a question for Tim and Stephen? Visit the “submit your audio” portion of the website to ask us anything.

Thanks for tuning in to the SteadyTrade Podcast. Stay tuned for weekly episodes featuring the hottest topics for traders of all levels.

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