We’ve all heard the saying, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”
I think there is another version of this that is equally powerful:
You are, to a large extent, the average of the thoughts you repeatedly have about yourself.
And as traders, this matters more than we probably realise.
Every day, we are fighting hundreds of thoughts.
“Should I take this trade?”
“Why did my P&L go down today?”
“This algo isn’t working.”
“I always make mistakes here.”
“Maybe I’m just not good at this.”
Some of these thoughts are useful. They help us question, analyse and improve.
But some of them are just negative narratives we keep repeating.
And the dangerous part is that even when we say them jokingly, they can slowly become beliefs.
There’s a line from Richard Bach’s Illusions that I really like:
“Argue for your limitations and you get to keep them.”
There is something incredibly powerful about that idea.
If you repeatedly tell yourself that you can’t do something, that you’re bad at something, that a particular situation always goes against you — eventually, you stop approaching it with curiosity and start approaching it with that belief already baked in.
This doesn’t mean ignoring your weaknesses.
Quite the opposite.
As traders, we have to be brutally honest with ourselves. We need to study our mistakes, question our assumptions, analyse our P&L and constantly work on our weaknesses.
But there is a big difference between saying:
“I made a mistake. How do I fix this?”
and
“I’m terrible at this. I always make these mistakes.”
The first is growth.
The second is identity.
And once a limitation becomes part of your identity, it becomes much harder to challenge.
I’ve always been a big believer in positive self-talk and a big hater of unnecessary negative self-talk.
Not because we should pretend everything is fine.
But because you can acknowledge a limitation without making it your identity.
You can say:
“I’m not good at this yet.”
instead of:
“I’m not good at this.”
That tiny word — yet — leaves the door open.
For a trader, perhaps our greatest edge isn’t just our strategy, our data or our execution.
It is the clarity and calmness of our mind.
A calm mind allows us to think critically.
It allows us to take a trade when the setup is right instead of chasing because of FOMO.
It allows us to stay out when there is no edge instead of feeling the need to do something.
And it allows us to look at a bad trade and learn from it without turning it into a story about ourselves.
Your thoughts become your internal environment.
So be careful about the environment you create inside your own head.
Question yourself.
Challenge yourself.
Criticise your process when needed.
But don’t constantly talk yourself out of your own potential.
Don’t argue for your limitations.
Happy Tuesday! 
-Mohit