The Corner of 8th & Insanity
Today’s Mantra -
I AM healing, changing
and transforming.
I AM walking into the most successful
and self rewarding chapter of my life.
6a - Yin Yoga & Breath work
7a - Yoga Nidra & Prayer
730a - 8a Family / Breakfast
830a - 945a - Trade @ Desk
10a - 11a Therapy
1130a - Weight Room - Chest & Shoulders
Warm Up
3.5mi Walk @ 15%
Push Ups 3x25
Ab Wheel 3x15
Barbell Bench (5x10)
Inc Dumbbell Press (5x6)
Overhead Dumbbell Press (5x8)
Cable Lateral Raise (4x15)
Tricep Pushdown (5x12)
Face Pulls (4x12)
Reverse Grip Cable Fly (3x TF)
Dips TF
130p - 3p Trade, Read & Write
3p - 7p - Family Time & Dinner
7p - 8p Walk w/ Tuli ♡
9p - Rest & Recovery
The Corner of 8th & Insanity
Gratitude as Fuel for Today
You are surrounded by blessings—seen and unseen. The roof over your head. The steady breath in your lungs. The people who care for you. The strength that carried you through every storm. Even the challenges that shaped your resilience. None of these are small things. They are the foundation you stand on right now.
The trap most of us fall into is waiting. Waiting until the picture is perfect before we feel grateful. Waiting until the bank account hits a number, until the body looks a certain way, until life smooths out. But gratitude doesn’t come after achievement—it fuels it. Gratitude is the ignition switch. The more you recognize what’s already here, the more energy you create to move toward what you desire.
Gratitude sharpens focus. It quiets the noise of scarcity and lack. It reminds you that you are already resourced, already supported, already standing on solid ground. From that place of strength, you stop chasing and start creating. From that state of abundance, better decisions get made. Fear loses its grip. Momentum builds.
But here’s the key: gratitude is not just a thought. It’s an action. It’s a choice you make, over and over again, to align with abundance instead of lack. And the way you practice it is simple: stop right now and count three blessings in front of you. Out loud. Write them down if you need to. Do it before you scroll, before you trade, before you move on autopilot into the day.
Let this be your call to action: today, amplify gratitude into motion. Every time you feel stress creeping in, count blessings. Every time scarcity whispers, counter it with proof of abundance. And then act from that state. Make the phone call. Hit the workout. Take the trade that aligns with your plan.
Life doesn’t open the door to more when you wait—it opens when you give thanks for what you already carry. Gratitude is not passive. It is the power source. Use it today.
The Ego’s Trap: Why Comparison Kills Traders
The Illusion of Progress
One of the most seductive traps in trading is comparison.
Scroll social media and you’ll see screenshots of massive gains, traders flashing six-figure days, or threads about catching the move of the year. And it’s easy to look at your own account, your own journal, your own results—and feel small.
But here’s the truth: comparison is pure ego. It’s not rooted in reality.
You can’t compare your chapter one to someone else’s chapter ten. You don’t know the risks they took, the drawdowns they’ve endured, or the years they spent in the dark grinding through charts when no one was watching.
Comparison makes you forget the only real opponent you face: the person staring back at you in the mirror.
The Market Doesn’t Care Who You Compare To
The market doesn’t reward comparison.
It doesn’t pay you for envy. It doesn’t hand out points for being more like Kristjan Kullamägi, Dan Zanger, or Druckenmiller.
The market pays you for:
Discipline
Preparation
Execution
And those are things you can only build internally. You don’t sharpen your edge by obsessing over someone else’s. You sharpen it by showing up every day, refining your process, cutting your losses, and compounding your wins.
When you stop looking sideways and start looking inward, you stop bleeding energy. That’s when the compounding begins.
The Habits That Reshape a Trader
Comparison loses its grip the moment you focus on building your own foundation. That foundation is laid through habits—daily rituals that shape who you are before the opening bell.
There are four pillars every trader must master:
Waking up earlier
Eating better
Training the body
Cutting distractions
None of these are glamorous. But together, they create the physical and mental bandwidth required for sustained performance in the markets.
1. Waking Up Earlier: Owning the Morning
Markets are ruthless teachers. They don’t wait for you to “feel ready.” They open whether you’re prepared or not. Which means preparation has to happen before the chaos begins.
Waking up earlier isn’t about punishment—it’s about buying back time.
An extra hour in the morning gives you space to journal emotions, scan charts, and set alerts without rushing. It’s the difference between entering the session with clarity versus reacting like a rookie.
Traders who own the morning carry calm into the open. They’ve already visualized setups, walked through scenarios, and decided on stop placements. When volatility hits, they don’t scramble—they execute.
Morning ritual blueprint:
Wake before the world.
Hydrate immediately.
Move your body lightly to activate your system.
Review yesterday’s trades without judgment.
Plan today’s opportunities with precision.
The trader who wins the morning often wins the day.
2. Eating Better: Fuel for Execution
Trading is cognitive combat. Every decision pulls from your brain’s energy reserves. And what you eat directly determines how steady—or shaky—those reserves are.
Junk food, sugar spikes, and caffeine crashes kill clarity. In a calm setting, you barely notice. But in front of screens, with capital at risk, those crashes show up as hesitation, tilt, and sloppy execution.
On the flip side, clean fuel keeps the brain steady. Protein, healthy fats, greens, hydration—all of these stabilize the nervous system.
Think like an athlete in training. Would a fighter binge fast food before stepping into the ring? Would a sprinter crush donuts before race day? Of course not. Trading demands the same respect.
Practical upgrades:
Swap soda for water.
Anchor meals in protein and greens.
Eat lighter before the market opens.
Track how food affects focus—adjust as ruthlessly as you adjust stops.
Your edge relies on a clear mind. Eat like your account depends on it—because it does.
3. Training the Body: Building Resilience
Trading looks sedentary. Hours at a desk, eyes on screens. But the reality is, it’s physically demanding in invisible ways. Stress spikes. Breathing shortens. Shoulders lock. Over time, this wrecks your nervous system.
That’s why training the body is non-negotiable.
Strength, cardio, mobility—each one restores balance. A strong body doesn’t just look better; it endures stress better.
A trader with endurance survives volatility. A trader without it burns out.
Start small:
Strength: 3 sessions per week for stability.
Cardio: 2 sessions to build endurance.
Mobility: 10–15 minutes daily to undo sitting damage.
View workouts as risk management. Just as you cut losses to preserve capital, you train to preserve clarity. Don’t get sloppy with the machine that runs your brain.
4. Cutting Distractions: Protecting Attention
If the market is your battlefield, distraction is your enemy. Every notification, every scroll, every toxic conversation is a leak in your edge.
Attention is currency. Spend it wisely.
Traders who scatter it across social media, Netflix, or drama don’t have enough left for deep analysis. They’re always half-present, always reactive.
Cutting distractions is about alignment. Ask yourself:
Does this input serve my goals, or steal from them?
If it doesn’t serve—cut it.
Tactics to reclaim attention:
Silence non-essential notifications.
Use blockers during trading hours.
Audit your environment—remove visual clutter.
Audit your circle—remove energy drainers.
Every time you reclaim attention, you reclaim power. A focused trader is a dangerous trader.
Discipline as Identity
All these habits—waking up early, eating clean, training, cutting distractions—are meaningless if you treat them as “tips.”
Discipline has to become identity.
It’s not “I need to be disciplined today.”
It’s “I am disciplined.”
When identity shifts, everything changes. You don’t argue with yourself in the moment—you’ve already decided who you are.
The Mirror Test
Every night, the scoreboard isn’t your P&L. It’s whether you raised the bar on yourself.
Ask yourself:
Did I wake when I said I would?
Did I fuel my body for clarity?
Did I train for resilience?
Did I guard my attention?
If yes—you’re compounding. Even if today’s trades were red.
Because the account is always a lagging indicator of your discipline. Stay consistent, and eventually, the P&L catches up.
The Long Game
Here’s the truth: most traders quit. They blow up, burn out, or fade—not because they lack intelligence, but because they lacked endurance.
But if you commit to these habits—if you play the long game, if you beat yesterday’s version of yourself—you separate from 99% of the field.
Consistency is the rarest edge of all.
Final Word
Forget comparison. Forget ego.
The real game is simple: win the battle in the mirror every day, and the markets won’t be able to ignore you.
LIVE FEARLESS, NOT RECKLESS.
Curious about working with me or would like to connect? Give me a shout, anytime. Here