“Discipline is easy when it’s quiet.
The test begins when everything starts to move.”
The weeks have been kind.
Valentine’s balance grows — not just in numbers, but in patience.
His rhythm feels natural now.
Coffee. Charts. Notes. Peace.
But peace never lasts forever.
The markets wake up — wild, volatile, unstoppable.
Crypto is spiking.
Stocks are surging.
Every feed is flashing green and gold.
“This is the moment,” someone writes in the forum.
“If you’re not in, you’re missing out.”
He feels it — that old pulse of adrenaline.
The one he thought he’d left behind.
“Illustrations created with AI. Story written and produced for Steemit Originals.”
He scrolls through the charts — they move like fire.
Every candle a promise, every surge a dare.
He could double his position.
He could ride the wave.
He could break his rules — just once.
His hand hovers over the mouse.
The cursor flickers, waiting.
The sound of his own heartbeat feels louder than the room.
A silence deeper than any before fills the room.
“Trust the work.”
He exhales, closes the tab, and writes instead:
“Patience isn’t the absence of action.
It’s the control of it.”
The next morning, the market crashes.
Messages flood the forum — panic, loss, noise.
Valentine watches quietly, sipping his coffee.
His plan held.
So did he.
He smiles, not out of pride —
but gratitude.
“The real profit,” he writes,
“is peace that survives the storm.”