A few weeks ago, I registered for an online event about “crushing procrastination.”
Procrastination is definitely something that comes up in my trading — and in life. And I know I’m not alone. I’ve been hearing similar stories from members of our First 40 Trading Club and Elevate groups.
The event itself was… fine. I didn’t walk away with clear tactics or a solid framework for fighting procrastination. It turned out to be more about selling a high-ticket retreat.
But I’m still glad I went. Sometimes you attend a webinar, workshop, or challenge and walk away with just one nugget that’s worth the time.
For me, that nugget came from a guest speaker who mentioned a book called The DOSE Effect by TJ Power.
What “DOSE” Really Means
In the book, DOSE stands for four key chemicals in our biology:
- Dopamine
- Oxytocin
- Serotonin
- Endorphins
I’m halfway through listening to it, and it’s been eye-opening — helping me understand my life, my trading, and my relationships better.
One idea stood out, especially for volatile or uncertain market times.
The Simple Formula for Happiness
The book offers this definition:
Happiness = the relationship between your expectations and your reality.
It’s so simple — and yet, the more I thought about it, the more it rang true.
In life, it’s easy to see this with things like your body image, relationship status, or financial situation. Social media makes it worse — “comparison is the thief of joy” isn’t just a saying. You can be having a perfectly good day, then see something online that makes you feel like you’re missing out.
Bringing It Back to Trading
Here’s what I’ve realized:
Trading happiness isn’t just about the money you make — it’s about how consistently you make it.
And for many of us, that consistency comes with a sense of control. After all, most of us became self-directed traders because we want to be in control of our money — not just hand it to a financial advisor or rely on the talking heads on TV.
The problem is, we can only control so much.
How to Close the Gap
Even with a solid trading plan and a trading journal, there’s always factors you can’t control.
One way to improve your trading happiness is to adapt your expectations to match the reality you’re in.
This isn’t about lowering standards — it’s about making sure your expectations line up as well as they can with current conditions.
For example:
- In volatile markets, expect the noise, including choppy setups and sudden reversals and use trailing stops and other protective strategies to manage risk more strictly than you would in quieter markets.
- Adjust your risk as it relates to your trading account — maybe you only risk 0.5% to 1% per trade instead of the more typical 2% to 5% range.
- Increase how often you check on live positions systematically – for example in quiet conditions you may give a day trade 15 minutes to get going, but in choppier conditions you check in after 10 minutes to see if it’s still worth staying in an accepting the risk
The more aligned your expectations are with reality, the less frustration you’ll feel — even if trading conditions are tough.
Your Turn
If you’ve been feeling like outside forces are tossing you around, take a step back and ask:
- What expectations have I recently had in my trading that can I adapt right now?
- How can I best align my mindset to the reality of this market?
Again, we’re not lowering standards and trading anything that flies by. We’re just adjusting what we expect so that if things start to get wild it’s less of a shock.
Because when your expectations and reality are in sync, your trading — and your mindset — will be in a much better, much happier, place.
What’s one example where your trading expectations didn’t match reality, and how did you adjust? Share it in the comments — you might help someone else find their own alignment.
~Hima
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