Can you cram your way to becoming a trading pro?

The past 30 years have amused me watching some traders try to pole vault the Empire State building, with no training whatsoever.

If you did three push ups a day for five days, without a doubt you’d be able to do four on the next day.

Sure, it might take you a year to get to doing 30 in a row, but by building it up, day by day, week by week, you’d do it. You would get stronger because your body would have no choice. Those incremental steps would build muscle, and you’d adapt.

You wouldn’t need to ‘manifest’ or ‘visualise’. You’d prove it to yourself that this is possible.

That’s how robust growth occurs. Bit by bit. Painstaking step by painstaking step.

Sure, sometimes you meet the genetic freak that can punch out 100 push ups with no training whatsoever, but I have a newsflash. That isn’t YOU.

When it comes to emotional growth and skillset growth, this idea can be hard to accept. We all crave that zero to hero story. We would love the rags to riches fairy tale.

But this isn’t possible for traders.

Once you realise this, and quit fighting the work, you’ll be in a superior position to Joe Blow who still believes in fairy tales. Sure, it may seem hard, but if you constantly butt your head up against the brick wall of unrealistic expectations, you’ll get sad. You’ll think you don’t have what it takes.

And that low mood could turn into years.

That’s how delayed projects become abandoned dreams.

All growth in the markets is gained by centimetres, not huge leaps. On the basis of these centimetres, you can build a totally new version of yourself.

Treat trading like push ups. Do three. Heck, do one. All that matters is that you’ve started and your moving in the right direction. The results will take care of themselves if you just keep moving.

If you're feeling stuck or frustrated, try asking yourself these questions:

• What is the smallest, simplest, and least impressive version of this goal?

• What's holding me back from pursuing this unimpressive version?

• Can I commit to showing up in small ways every day and see where it leads?

It’s not sexy. But that’s why it works.