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Change Your Life and Trading This Year

by | January 20th 2025 | C.L.E.A.R., Embody, Respond

Key Points:

  1. Build a foundation for success by defining values in all key areas of life, from family to work, health, and creativity.
  2. Align actions with values to make disciplined trading and personal growth decisions.
  3. Use values as a compass to navigate challenges and create a sustainable, purpose-driven year.

As a new year begins, the desire to make changes often feels more potent than ever. However, many resolutions fall flat because they focus on short-term fixes rather than what truly matters. If you want to make lasting changes in your life and trading, the key lies in your values.

Values are the foundation for meaningful, sustainable growth. They guide your actions, shape your identity, and provide clarity in the face of uncertainty. This post will explore how aligning your trading and life decisions with your core values can transform your year.

Step 1: Define Your Core Values

You must first understand what truly matters to you to create meaningful change. Reflect on the following areas of your life to uncover your values:

  1. Family: How can you better connect with or support your family this year?
  2. Intimate Relationships: What actions will strengthen trust, communication, and closeness?
  3. Friends & Social Life: How can you nurture meaningful relationships with friends?
  4. Community Life: What contributions will help you feel more connected to your community?
  5. Work and Career: What goals align with your career aspirations and trading development?
  6. Education / Training / Learning: What knowledge or skills do you want to pursue or improve?
  7. Spirituality: How will you deepen your sense of purpose or connection to something greater?
  8. Recreation / Fun / Creativity: How can you prioritize joy, play, and creative expression?
  9. Health and Wellness: What habits help you maintain physical and mental well-being?

Write down three to five core values that resonate most with you. Use these values as a filter for all your decisions, whether in trading or personal life.

“Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.” – John F. Kennedy

Step 2: Align Values with Actions

Your values and your trading success are closely connected. Being a disciplined, profitable trader supports your financial goals and allows you to align with what truly matters. On the other hand, unprofitable trading—fueled by impulsive decisions, fear, or greed—can undermine your ability to honor your values. Here’s how success in trading impacts key areas of your life:

  • Family: A successful trader sets clear boundaries, ensuring time with loved ones while creating financial security for the family. Seeing how their behavior impacts their family’s future. Unprofitable trading, however, can lead to stress and overwork, taking time and energy away from family connections.
  • Intimate Relationships: Success in trading helps you remain present and emotionally available to your partner, reducing financial tension and emotional reactivity. Considering it is a trade, it is a good enough setup to risk capital that could benefit both of you. By contrast, the rollercoaster of unprofitable trading can spill over into your relationship, causing distance or conflict.
  • Friends & Social Life: When trading is profitable and well-structured, you have the time and resources to connect with friends and share your journey. But when trading becomes chaotic or unprofitable, you may withdraw, feel embarrassed, or neglect meaningful friendships.
  • Community Life: A successful trader can contribute financially and personally to causes they care about, creating a sense of purpose and connection. Unprofitable trading can foster isolation, guilt, and financial insecurity, making giving back to your community harder.
  • Work and Career: Trading success reflects discipline, focus, and execution, strengthening your professional identity and overall career progress. It can lead to a new profession, skillset, and lifestyle. Unprofitable trading, on the other hand, undermines confidence and creates patterns of inconsistency that hurt your ability to grow.
  • Education / Training / Learning: Being a successful trader means consistently learning from your experiences and reviewing trades to improve performance. Learning to trade and to understand trade psych is secondary to understanding trading. Unprofitable traders often avoid reflection, repeating mistakes that hinder their growth.
  • Spirituality: Trading with purpose and discipline reinforces a sense of freedom, security, or legacy, aligning with your higher aspirations. Conversely, trading driven by impulsivity or greed can disconnect you from your sense of purpose, leaving you unfulfilled.
  • Recreation / Fun / Creativity: Profitable trading allows you to take breaks guilt-free, enjoying hobbies and creative outlets that bring joy. Struggling traders often feel trapped, unable to relax or step away from the market, draining their energy and creativity. Consider these when deciding if a trade is worth the risk.
  • Health and Wellness: Success in trading provides peace of mind, freeing you to focus on physical fitness, mindfulness, and emotional resilience. Unprofitable trading often leads to stress, burnout, and unhealthy coping habits, which can harm your overall well-being.

By aligning your trading practices with your values, you create a life that reflects discipline, purpose, and fulfillment. Successful trading becomes a vehicle for living out your values, while unprofitable trading often creates obstacles to what matters most.

Step 3: Use Values to Navigate Challenges

Life and trading are unpredictable, and it’s easy to lose focus during tough times. Your values can act as a guide:

  • After a losing streak, reconnect with your value of resilience. It’s a powerful force that can keep you focused long-term, reminding you that setbacks are just part of the journey.
  • When burnout strikes, your commitment to health and wellness can remind you to rest and recover.
  • If emotions like fear or greed take over, grounding yourself in your values of discipline and patience can help you regain control. These values can anchor you in the storm, keeping you steady and focused on your long-term goals.

Values serve as a stabilizing force, helping you make decisions that align with your long-term goals rather than reacting impulsively to short-term stress.

Step 4: Reflect and Realign

Creating lasting change requires regular reflection. It’s a powerful tool that allows you to delve deep into your values and actions. Ask yourself these questions often:

  • Daily Reflection: Did today’s actions align with my family, health, or career values?
  • Weekly Check-In: What small changes can I make to live more aligned with my values this week?
  • Monthly Reassessment: Are my values guiding my trading and life decisions, or am I slipping back into old patterns?

Reflection is a powerful tool that reinforces alignment with your values and builds self-awareness and resilience, essential qualities for successful trading. It’s not just about looking back but also about looking forward and realigning your actions with your values.

CLEAR Mindset Connections

Embody: Aligning your actions with your core values allows you to live authentically and with purpose, both in trading and life.

Respond: By grounding yourself in your values, you can face challenges with decisive, intentional action, transforming obstacles into opportunities for growth.

Act Accordingly

Change isn’t easy but possible when driven by what truly matters. You’re setting the stage for growth, fulfillment, and resilience by aligning your trading and life with your core values.

Take the first step: Reflect on the values that matter most in each area of your life and write down one action you’ll take in the coming week. Let this be the year you build a values-driven foundation for life and trading success.

What values are you focusing on this year? Share your thoughts in the comments below or join our Educational Community to connect with like-minded traders committed to a values-driven approach. We’d love to hear about your journey and support you in aligning your life and trading with your core values.

Sean Sawyer, MS

Psychotherapist | Performance Coach

Sean Sawyer, a psychotherapist since 2003 and full-time trader since 2017. Sean uniquely blends psychology and trading, offering insights from both worlds. His experience in psychological trauma and performance psychology helps individuals master decision-making and resilience in high-pressure situations.