In any important effort where you are up against other individuals that are as motivated, as intelligent, as competent and as prepared if not better than you, then it is crucial that you identify an edge in your game in order to come out ahead of the pack and get the win. Trading is a good example of this due to the solitary nature of the game. You are in there alone in most cases and ultimately the only person that you can rely upon is you when the ride gets bumpy.

By having and using an edge you are employing an approach, a strategy, a belief, a mindset, or a tool that will support you in bringing your absolute best to the platform and keeping it there. Surely you have experienced times where you found yourself at a crossroads in a trade; a fork-in-the-road where you had to make a choice to either go to the left and violate your rules, break your promises to yourself and go over the cliff to crash and burn; or, you chose to go to the right, kept your highest and best trader engaged while trading in your highest and best interests. When you do-the-right-thing in such an instance, you not only support your ability to follow-through more consistently; but, as well, you have cataloged a peak experience that has the effect of catapulting you forward, bolstering your confidence and strengthening your self-esteem. This edge is usually in the form of a mental or emotional tool. Stop, Challenge and Choose is one such tool or edge that aids you in remaining focused intently on what-matters-most in the trade by interrupting disruptive patters of thinking, feeling and doing that can and do cause you to take the left turn at the fork in the road resulting in catastrophic results. In a subsequent blog I’ll outline the main points of how this works so that you can hone your focus to a laser presision on what matters most in your trading and in your life.