Early in my career one of the biggest mistakes I made was trading my P/L. I left so much money on the table it wasn't even funny. Trade the charts, not your P/L.
bingo. concentrate on your setups, NOT the money if you concentrate on your setups, and they have positive expectancy, and you manage risk (don't overleverage) you will make money. if you concentrate on the money, you will not trade your setups in a disciplined manner, and then spiral downhill (for most traders). every trade is a BUSINESS decision. think of it that way. you should be as calmly detached as you would in any rational business decision. 90% + of retail futures traders lose money. they constantly think "how much $$$ can i make?" what you should be thinking of is DEFINING YOUR RISK, not making a killing. here's another aspect of trading. if you are defining "success" by how much money you made (at least in the shortterm n<100 trades or so), then you are not thinking rationally. if you break trading rules, and HAPPEN to make money - that's LUCK not good trading. if you follow the rules and happen to have three losers in a row, that is also (bad) luck and happens even with 75% setups (which is a very high expectancy setup).