Some of you have figured out from my Instagram profile @downdogsanddividends that I’m a yoga junkie. I have studied and taught yoga for almost a decade. I always ask new students in my class if they have any experience with yoga.

I find most students try to downplay their experience and claim, “Oh, I’m just a beginner.”

It takes self-control, but I have learned not to roll my eyes, and here’s why.

Sure, if it’s your first yoga class you probably feel a bit lost. You’re told to leave your socks, shoes, and phone out in the lobby. The instructor is using a bunch of foreign words you don’t understand. And muscles you didn’t know you had are telling you they’re not happy.

The second time you come to yoga class you know where to put your stuff. The lingo sounds familiar and you’re feeling a lot more limber. You have definitely started to figure out what’s going on around you.

By the third class you’re no longer a beginner. You are simply practicing yoga.

Don’t Let Labels Hold You Back

The story is very similar with any new endeavor. Even investing.

When you decide it’s time to start investing, you first have to figure out how to open a brokerage account and make a trade. With your second trade you start learning things about stock trading like using limit and good-til-canceled orders.

By your third trade, you’re just investing. You’re doing it.

Just like new yoga students, I hear people dismiss their experience with the excuse, “I’m just a beginner.”

Our brain uses labels as a shortcut. It’s a way to store a lot of information in a few words. That might be efficient, but every time you use a label it restricts your world. It is literally a mechanism to limit reality. And more often than not, I see the “beginner” label hinder someone from doing what they can or want to do.

The real difference between the beginner and the expert is the accumulation of experience and listening to your instincts. You will soon realize that the later flows from the former. The bridge between them is built by doing and learning.

Feel Like a Beginner? Here’s What to Do

Some of you have been trading for decades, and some of you have just started your investing journey. Either way, I’m glad you’re here and please drop me a line with your questions about investing and topics you’d like to see covered here.

To help you get started, I just released a new four-part video investing course. You can find it here.

In the first video, I take you through all the steps to open a brokerage account. The second video will help you organize your investment goals and how we use dividend stocks to achieve them.

In video number three, I talk about one of my favorite Bedrock Income stocks and I show you how to place that trade with your broker step-by-step. The final video does the same thing with one of my favorite Current Yield stocks.

If you are a beginner reading this email, I highly recommend watching these four short videos. Because once you have opened your account and made those two trades, you’re no longer a beginner. You’re now an investor.

Do you still have things to learn? Of course! You will learn something with every trade. Plus, the more you get involved with investing, the greater your understanding of how the interaction between markets and companies changes over time. Throw in investor sentiment, and I would argue that you will never know everything.

Whether it is investing or some other new pursuit, don’t label yourself a beginner and throttle your success. Get started, get active, and get confident.

For more income, now and in the future,

Kelly Green

• How to get started on your investing journey

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