There Is No Schedule

This weekend, something unimaginable happened in college football — at least if you’re an Indiana University alum like me.

My alma mater, the Indiana Hoosiers, won the Big Ten Championship.
I know… no big deal, right?

But when you look at the stats, it is a big deal.
They haven’t won this championship since 1957!!
And they beat Ohio State, one of the most winning programs in college football history — while Indiana has famously been one of the least winning… until Coach Curt Cignetti showed up last year.

And honestly?
I wasn’t even watching the game expecting a win. I just wanted them to play well and not get totally crushed by Ohio State.

We got our victory. And it was sa-weet!

“There Is No Schedule”

Listening to Coach Cignetti’s post-game comments, one of the Fox commentators asked him:

“You were just hired two years ago… isn’t this ahead of schedule?”

And the coach said:

“When you’ve got the right team, the right resources, the right management… there is no schedule.”

That line hit me.
Of course it’s relevant in collegiate athletics — but it’s also true in life, and absolutely true in trading.

When Your System Starts Working

Maybe you’ve started to find a system or approach that works for you.
A lot of people in our Trading Tribe are experiencing that right now — while others are still finding their footing.

But let’s say you’re one of the folks where things are clicking. Your consistency is beginning to build.

Here’s what I want you to know:

Don’t obsess over when your big leap should happen.
Focus instead on what that leap should be.

And this timing — the end of a calendar year — naturally brings up reflection.
We start asking ourselves: Shouldn’t I be further along by now? Shouldn’t I have hit that goal already?

But sometimes goals don’t follow the schedule we plan in our heads.

In mentoring traders I’ve seen goals from 

• Achieve a certain sum of trading profits ex make $10,000 this year
  
• Steadily earning a percentage each month ex grow my account by 5% each month
  
• Hitting an average short-term goal with parameters ex making $500 a day while trading 60 minutes or less
  
• Metrics based, ex have a winning percentage of 70% or better 

So again the key here is to define the goal – not stress about the timeline.

Coach Cignetti wanted to make Indiana football a National Championship contender – and it’s here. 

Work the Process, Not the Clock

If you put the work in now — just like Indiana did — you give yourself the chance to see outsized results later.

Yes, there will always be things you can’t control.
Ohio State missing that 27-yard field goal? That was luck going the Hoosiers way.
And in life or trading, luck sometimes goes your way too.

But even though those moments are unpredictable, you can work on the predictable:

• Your preparation process
  
• Your trading plan
  
• Your skill development
  

And if you keep showing up for those things, your timeline becomes a lot less important.

Watch the Tape

The coach also said something else that stuck with me:

“It all makes sense when you watch the tape.”

He meant:
When you look at how the team actually played… how they reacted when they were behind… how they treated every game as its own battle… the results make sense.

He even said he has three and a half weeks to make the team humble and hungry for the playoffs.
He’s willing to celebrate this massive win AND still keep his eye on the prize of becoming National Champions 

So I invite you to give yourself that same chance.

Look past the schedule you think you should be on in your trading journey.
Instead, ask yourself:

• What kind of money do I want to be making?
  
• What kind of results do I want?
  
• What skills do I want to build?
  
• Who else might I want to teach trading — maybe even my kids or grandkids?
  

And even if your mind automatically wants to assign a timeline… remember:

There is no schedule.
At the end of the day, the tape will show your growth.

~Hima