We Love Potential More Than Profit (And It’s Costing Us)
Here’s the pattern: You analyze something carefully. You get excited. You make a plan. It works beautifully for two weeks. Then something shifts, you don’t adjust, and you lose what you gained.
Sound familiar?
For me, it’s trading.
For you, it might be:
Projects you abandon at 70%,
Businesses you start but don’t scale, or
Strategies you switch before they have time to work.
The problem isn’t discipline. It’s that we’re addicted to potential.
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The Thrill of the New Idea
I love the new idea. The thrill of a new result.
This year I created 116 spreadsheets analyzing stocks. I built 111 custom indicators. I listened to 100 podcasts. I learned technical analysis, Python programming, and backtesting.
My returns? Up for the year, but not quite as good as if I’d just bought an index fund and walked away.
The lesson wasn’t in the spreadsheets. It was in recognizing the pattern.
I run on dopamine more than serotonin. My brain screams “STOP BEING LAZY! LET’S DO SOMETHING!!!” even when the smart move is to do nothing.
Maybe yours does too.
The Paradox: Self-Absorption Is Actually Useful
Here’s something nobody tells you: you have to be self-absorbed to break through self-absorption.
All those spreadsheets? All that obsessive analysis of my own patterns, my psychology, my triggers? That wasn’t narcissism. That was research.
You can’t fix what you don’t see. And you can’t see it until you’re willing to look at yourself with the same intensity you bring to everything else.
I had to study my own behavior like I was studying momentum indicators. Track when I overtrade. Notice what triggers my anxiety. Recognize the exact moment when excitement turns into recklessness.
The goal of self-absorption isn’t to stay there. It’s to understand yourself well enough that you can get out of your own way.
Most people never do this work because they think self-reflection is selfish or indulgent. But the most effective people I know - in business, in trading, in any field - are ruthlessly honest about their own patterns.
They know their tells. They know when they’re about to self-sabotage. They’ve done the uncomfortable work of watching themselves fail and asking why.
So yeah, be self-absorbed for a season. Study yourself. Take notes. Figure out your patterns.
Then use that knowledge to become someone who doesn’t need to be self-absorbed anymore - because you’ve already built systems that account for who you are.
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When Anxiety Becomes Your Advantage
Here’s what I’ve figured out: anxiety isn’t the problem.
Not **knowing what to do with anxiety **is the problem.
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Read more
](https://brianbcarter.substack.com/p/i-love-potential-more-than-profit)