A Watched Pot Never Boils

When things are going well, it's hard to walk away. It's true in life, and it's true in forex trading.
I hit the $60,000 mark today. A milestone it may not be, but I thought it was pretty darn cool. A 20% gain in just 11 days of trading! My expectations, needless to say, were exceeded ... and then some.
Now a rational trader would take this as validation that the strategy in place works, and he or she would continue plugging away without any changes. After all, as the old saying goes, "If it ain't broke, why fix it?"
I am not a rational trader; I am an emotional trader.
Today wasn't a bad trading day by any means. I posted a profit--$1,800+. But strategy-wise, it was a pretty lousy performance.
Crossing the $60,000 mark made me unnaturally believe that it was me, not the strategy, that deserved credit for the profit. So what did I do? I spent hours analyzing the charts, placed orders, and then watched ... and watched ... and watched.
I full-on broke one of my rules: I was not to spend too much of my day in trading mode.
I have other things to accomplish after all. I still have work for my actual job. My book club meets in four days and I still have a third of the story remaining. And my apartment needs some long-overdue deep cleaning.
Watching the charts turned out to be appropriate punishment though. I would place an order, feel confident that the price would move in the direction I wanted it to, and then, when it didn't--or at least didn't right away--I began stressing. A mental tug-of-war ensued in which my emotional self wanted to sell at a loss to avoid a bigger loss down the road, while my rational self wanted to stick it out and wait for the price to do what all the indicators told me it would most likely do.
My rational self won, but victory was bitter, not sweet. It was exhausting to say the least.
So tomorrow--maybe tonight even--I will resolve to place the order and parachute (i.e., stop loss) and just walk away. Focus on other things.
For my book club meeting, I usually make the hostess a gift as a thank you for the wine and treats I consume throughout the discussion. Last month I made a knit hat. This time I was thinking a purse from an pinstriped man's shirt I found on sale. Today, both the profit and the purse could've been made. It certainly would have been a better use of my time than watching the figurative pot start to boil.
The biggest gains I've ever posted were either overnight trades or day trades that I soon forgot were even in place. Sleep and the day-to-day grind distracted me, and those distractions proved beneficial.
I'd like to think that I'm an asset and not a detriment in this whole process, but until I get my mind and emtions disciplined, I think it's best to just walk away ...