I recently did some Lyft driving in San Francisco, taking people from point A to point B early in the morning. One thing you notice is that most people don’t appreciate that they are alive, awake, and able to do almost anything with the life they are given. Instead they fall into a dreamlike state, one task after another, day after long, boring day.

She was flying to India to participate in a yoga retreat. Wow, did we connect during our 15 minute ride. Alive. Excited. Driven. Purposeful. You could feel it in the car.

It makes me wonder. Some people, either suddenly or all their lives, are clear eyed, focused, excited, and determined. They exude an energy you can feel, and you know it to be true of their character.

Thoreau wrote this in 1854, and it describes a lot of passengers at 5 AM. The desperation isn’t loud. It looks like routine, one task after another, until the years are gone. The danger isn’t a big failure. It’s drifting through your own life without ever choosing it.

Everyone starts out in the first life, the one that feels endless. The second begins the moment you see the clock. The sooner you get there, the more of it you have to live. A trader who understands this stops treating time, and capital, as something there will always be more of.

What contributes to an awakening? For many people it is the death of a loved one, or some brush with death. I was driving in San Francisco at 3:30 in the morning when there was an accident. As I slowly drove by, I saw a dead body covered in a yellow tarp. Just like that, it was over for that soul. And so it can be for you and me.

Age contributes too. Once I hit 50, I realized there were more days behind me than in front of me. At 67, that is even more tangible.

Self improvement seems to play a role. The more one stays healthy, reads or listens to or watches good content, uses the sauna, exercises, meditates, and eats good food, the clearer one can think, and the more aware one becomes of our frail, tenuous human condition.

And perhaps luck. Some people seem to be born with self awareness and others not so much. There is luck in where you are born and to which parents.

All of this is to say, life is short. So why not put your time and effort into something that takes all of you? Something that requires patience, discipline, study, review, peace of mind, and equanimity. That is surely what day trading offers: an environment in which to excel, and in excelling, to live a very rich and varied life. The only one we have.

Trade safe,
Jay Cradeur
Founder, Day Trader Dojo

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