How to Get Out of Your Own Way in Trading
You Know Your Edge. You Know Your Rules. So Why Do You Keep Breaking Them?
Alright, so we’ve all heard this phrase, “Get out of your own way.”
But what does it actually mean? And how do you know if you’re doing it?
Well, think of it like this…
If you’ve done the courses. Read the books. Spent thousands of hours watching charts. You know your edge. You know your rules and have a trading plan sitting right there on your desk.
And yet you still don’t follow it.
You’re probably getting in your own way…
How do we fix it?
GETTING IN YOUR OWN WAY
You watch yourself move the stop. You watch yourself skip the A+ setup and take the C- one instead. You watch yourself chase the entry you swore you wouldn’t take…
And afterwards… you sit there thinking, “Why the f do I keep doing this?”
We’ve all been there. I’ve been there. It’s the worst feeling in trading because it’s not inexperience. You’re not some clueless beginner making newbie mistakes…
You’re an experienced trader making experienced mistakes… And that somehow feels worse. 
It’s that gap between knowing and doing…
So how do you “get out of your own way”?
Firstly… stop beating yourself up and give yourself time.
Honestly, the self-criticism loop is one of the most destructive forces in trading. You break a rule, you hammer yourself for it, you trade angry or timid the next day, you break another rule, you hammer yourself again…
It doesn’t really fix anything; it just makes the next mistake way more likely.
You made a mistake. Fine.
That doesn’t make you a bad trader. It makes you a human one…
And this isn’t something you can fix in a day. It’s a process. And the fact that you can see the problem means you’re already further along than most.
Second… get specific.
What’s the ONE thing you keep doing to sabotage your growth? Not five things. One. The biggest, most repeated offence.
Name it. Write it down.
Because “I need more discipline” is useless. It’s too vague. It’s like saying, “I need to be taller.”
But “I keep moving my stop when price gets within 10 ticks”… that’s something you can actually work with.
Third… figure out the why.
What’s happening in that moment? What are you feeling? What story are you telling yourself right before you break the rule?
Usually, there’s a trigger. A thought. A fear. Something like “what if it comes back and I missed it” or “I can’t take another loss today.”
Find it. Because until you know what’s driving the behaviour, you’re just fighting the symptom.
Fourth… make a plan.
Not “I’ll be better tomorrow.” That’s a wish, not a plan.
A real plan. Something specific and repeatable that you can do in the heat of the moment.
Like… “Before I move any stop, I have to write down why in my journal. If I can’t write a valid reason, the stop stays.”
That’s a plan. It’s small. It’s concrete. And it gives you something to do instead of the thing you keep doing.
So getting out of your own way means this:
- Pick the biggest saboteur of trading performance.
- Understand the trigger, the reason why
- Build one rule around it. A rule that reduces its impact over time.
- Give yourself time.
If you can keep identifying the problems and fixing them one by one… it’s just a head down, keep moving forwards game.