Mental Hurdles: Quit Being Lazy, Just Study
OK, I don’t want to sound like your mother but I probably am for a second or two here. Bare with me, here it goes: Stop being so damn lazy and get off your butt and study. Well, you can remain sitting down if you choose. That is perfectly fine; but do study.
Here’s the question:
Do you think your static dumb luck will keep raining money?
Hint: It won’t.
Here’s some inspirational quotes from wealthy successful people to help nudge you in the right direction:
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”
– Benjamin Franklin“Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.”
– Warren Buffett“Education: the inculcation of the incomprehensible into the indifferent by the incompetent.”
– John Maynard Keynes
Now that we got that out of the way. Let’s get started by going over some hints and ideas of how we can incorporate a natural progression of learning, and understanding the markets better into our daily routines. I’m not going to list out all the possibilities or cross reference all the ways as to which this can be done.
Let’s take a look of some ways you can progress your investment knowledge. I know there are only so many hours in the day, and you can only do so much. But here’s some ideas you might be able to incorporate into your everyday life:
- While making dinner: What are you doing while peeling potatoes, grating cheese, or searching your pantry for that broth you swear you had bought? I’ll tell you what you can be doing. Start listening to a podcast, or an audio book on a investment subject you have an interest in or need to gather more information about.
- Have you seen that most recent cat video? Nope, neither have I. And perhaps you should dial down your cat video searches and replace them with “convertible debentures” or better yet “dead cat bounce”. Dead cats are so much more rewarding than the fuzzy little cute ones anyways. When you need a video break from everyday routine, why not try adding in a search for something investing or trading related that you heard about and are curious to find out more. You’ll accomplish the break you were looking with the added benefit of learning something new.
- Online content: perhaps you came across this article in your regular everyday internet browsing. That’s good. Keep it up. It’s healthy to search for content online to further expand your mindset. It can be helpful to take in fresh perspectives from multiple sources and finding content online that is generally condensed and not as long as reading a entire book. This is a good way to help keep on top of subjects of interest. It can be as simple as keeping up with the latest news in the sector you follow. How easy is that?
- Oh shoot, the power is out. Or maybe it’s my eyeballs burning again form so much screen time. Well, dust off those books and hit it the old fashioned way! That’s right – a book! Believe it or not, there are plenty of great books out there that cover a wide variety of topics you can use to boost your knowledge. You can also choose to go to the library as well. Make this a reoccurring family routine, where you take your children to the library to pick out some books of their own to kick back and read. Maybe you could start with The Cat in the Hats “One cent, Two cents, Old cent, New cent” book all about money.
- Teach yourself: Who knows yourself better than you? Why don’t you teach yourself? There are plenty of ways of doing this. One of the best methods is to go back and revisit trades you have previously made. What worked? What did not? Why? Take the lessons away from these trades and carry them forward.
Or perhaps the next time you are feeling bored and want to experiment, you can check out the latest cat videos on Youtube…. Oh wait no. No No No No, that is not what I wanted to say. I mean maybe you could experiment with some new trading ideas. Make some trades or swings you wouldn’t normally dabble in. Of course, you will be doing this in your practice account (for now). Once you find something that works for you and can be proven then you can start incorporating it into your everyday investing or trading activities.
We can make excuses all day long if we want to, but we know we need to find more ways to incorporate further education into daily routines if we want to become more successful traders and investors. Education is something that is never ending, and we need to incorporate it into our daily lives if he want to stay on top. I could go on, but I have a book to read.