How to Break out of Trading Isolation!

This is something I hear often:  Trading is such an isolating profession.  How do we prevent ourselves from getting driven to insanity trading solo?

True, isolation isn’t unique to trading, but this has been a huge issue during this pandemic…and more so now for traders which is generally a solo profession or hobby.

Mike and I recently interviewed Men’s Health contributing author and journalist Jacob Baynham, who discusses the value of friendships on your physical and mental health. Also, through self-improvement and making social connection a priority, it will help you break out of the trading isolation cycle.

Here are 10 Key Ways to Break out of Trading Isolation:

  1. Friendships and social connection impacts your mental and physical wellbeing.  People who have healthy friendships tend to be better parents, better partners, better employees and live healthier lives. Research done over the years as reported by AARP.org shows that prolonged feelings of isolation or loneliness can be worse for you health than smoking 15 cigarettes a day!!
  2. People who have healthy friendships had parents who have healthy friendships.  So if you are a parent trying to justify spending some time with friends, remember that your kids are watching and learning from us and how we interact with our friends.  So in order for our kids to develop healthy friendships they need to see us sharing positive experiences with our friends (e.g. a son sees that after his dad goes out with his friend Jim, he looks so happy and a fuller person after spending time with him).
  3. Find Your Support System: Don’t rely just on your spouse or family for help because you may overburden them.  Find a community of like-minded individuals either in-person or virtually who can help, share stories, and be there for each other.  Mike has the Trader’s Mindchat Room that has a group of like-minded traders to help with trading issues and support each other along their trading journey. They discuss everything trading and provide you with a supportive community to help you during the highs and lows!
  4. Male Friendships have been hit hard during the Pandemic.  Men tend to do things shoulder-to-shoulder (go to a football game/bar/fishing) whereas women are better face-to-face (sitting down and talking at a coffee shop).  Typical male-accepted activities have been taken away primarily during this pandemic so men have had to become creative about ways to spend time together (running, sharing baking recipes, zoom calls, etc.)
  5. Make Friendship a Priority.  It’s important to schedule time for your friends.  Make it like a checklist item, similar to eating your vegetables, or having that workout.  Remember, having a call with a friend should bring you a sense of joy and will help you live a healthier lifestyle.  Therefore, it is better to go through life with friends and not just connect after every 2 years.  Therefore, to ensure it doesn’t get put on the back burner, try scheduling a 1/2 hour call or friendship check-in, similar to how you would schedule time at the gym.
  6. To have friends, you have to be a friend.  Friendships don’t happen by accident.  There needs to be a lot of intention.  You have to put in time.  Like making sourdough bread.  You need to feed the sourdough culture…nurture it….put some time into it so that it can grow.
  7. Find activities that fill you up:  Choose something that you are interested in and makes you happy (i.e. reading, exercise, art, etc.).  Ideally choose an activity outside of your working life.  Then find people also interested in those things or can teach you how to do it.
  8. Take This Time as an Opportunity.  The pandemic has given us the opportunity to be inside our heads.  Like a caterpillar in a cocoon, it is giving us time to grow through our own metamorphosis and figure out who we want to be.  Prior to the pandemic there was so much noise and endless running around that many of us never took the time to really think about what we want out of life.  Now we have that time to think about what we need in order to grow into that butterfly or person we want to become.  Also, keep in mind that this is a life journey and that we should continue to evaluate what we want in life and make this more of a habit.
  9. Become More Vulnerable:  When you share something personal, and show some vulnerability, it helps the other person open up more and share with you.  When you are vulnerable you become the shield for someone else.  Like Brené Brown says, “Staying vulnerable is a risk we have to take if we want to experience connection.”
  10. Don’t Judge Yourself Based on the “Highlights Reel.”  Social media has become a “highlights reel” so don’t get sucked up into that.  If we think other people have the perfect life based on what they are posting, remember they aren’t going to share the messy house or the crazy kids running out of control.  Everyone has their own share of struggles so be kind to yourself and to others.  And give yourself a break if you need it.

For the full Trader’s Mindchat Interview with Jacob Baynham, check it out here:

 

To join us in the Trader’s Mindchat Room click here to start your FREE 7-day trial!  We discuss everything trading and provide you with a supportive community to help you during the highs and lows!  You don’t have to do this alone!  We are here for you every step of the way!

 

No matter how you get started, the most important thing I’ve learned is to start!  If you are interested in the market, this is the best time to learn and get your feet wet.  MARA Wealth is here to help guide you, so you don’t get kicked around as much as we did. Click here to get your free 10-Step course download of The Trader’s Thoughtbox today!

 

 

To continue crushing it with your trading, check out the following MARA blog posts:

Four Exit Strategies You Need for Every Trade!

Top Ten Trading Highlights from Adam Sarhan 

The Four-Walled Prison of a Trader’s Mind