Humans are things of habit, they will create their safe space, a place where they feel comfortable, they are happy with what they have, and stepping out of can cause extra work and stress, so why would we want to get out of it?
This applies to the forex trading world too, once you have created that strategy that works, you want to stick by it, and that is good advice, but if you never make changes, never step away from the strategy you will be stuck with it for life, and you cannot guarantee that it will always work when the market conditions change.
When you talk about getting out of your comfort zone, a lot of people will be thinking of jumping out with both feet, you don’t need to double up your lot sizes or jump into an entirely new strategy, instead, it is best to ease your way, one toe at a time out of your comfort zone and into something new, not only will it allow you to expand your arsenal, but it will also help to increase your knowledge of different strategies and the markets as a whole.
Stepping out of that zone though, no matter how small will cause you to stress, it will bring you into contact with things that you do not know how to deal with, this is perfectly normal, but there are aways to help prepare yourself and to get out of that zone in a more steady and less stressful way.
One way to lower the stress levels is the old true and tested demo account, using the demo account will allow you to try out that new strategy, or change to your current strategy without having any actual risk, this takes out the stress part of the change, this isn’t revolutionary as I am sure you have been told plenty of times that you should be using a demo account to test things out, and that is for a good reason, it allows you to look at the changes without any added emotion giving you a much clearer view of what has gone wrong, but also what has gone right.
Take a slow step out of that comfort zone rather than jumping, we know that some people do not want to wait for change, you are excited about trying something new and the possibilities that it could bring but don’t jump out with both feet. Take a small step, increase that lot size by a small amount instead of doubling it, change just one aspect at a time to ensure it still works rather than changing the strategy entirely, this enables you to keep risks low, but also to learn about how each individual change actually affects your trading.
If your change isn’t successful, do not let this put you off, a loss is often the best lesson you can have, use the experience of loosing as a way to learn about why it didn’t win, why your trades lost and what you could do differently to help adapt it to win. Part of stepping out of your comfort zone is losing, its not the best part, but it is the best way to work out exactly what you need to do to expand that safe bubble you have.
So do not be afraid to get out of that comfort zone, those that are hugely successful have done it hundreds of time, if you don’t you will begin to stagnate and your trading won’t go anywhere else, so taker that first step and start learning more about your own trading and the forex trading world around you.
