I was just chatting with a poker buddy of mine... Again the word "motivation" was mentioned and I just want to point out another misconception (mostly for my own benefit but maybe others will learn something).
My friend said that "successful people are not smarter, just more motivated".
We had a little chat about this and hopefully we agreed that this is not quite true.
My first point is that a lot of people do not define "motivated" correctly. For instance, top performers can still perform exceptionally well when they are not motivated. They must be able to as it is impossible to be motivated all of the time. The fact is is that they have a better knowledge of how to perform well at these times of low motivation. In fact this kind of proves that they must be smarter!
As part of my improvement process I am writing this to remind myself of something I learned quite recently....
It is all about the PROCESS. Learn everything you can about what makes successful people become successful. Then do exactly what they do.
I think we all get a bit caught up in the results side of things. We see poker players making thousands of dollars each month and the natural reactions are to want the same. So people try to learn the quick answers, the magic video series, the magic poker books, the magic poker thread that will give us "the answer".
The fact of the matter is, to become like these high stakes crushers (or anyone else for that matter) you have to emulate the process. Yes, you have to work your butt off, but that is not just studying strategy, you have to understand the process of becoming THAT SORT OF PERSON, you have to become all of the things that it takes to be a successful person.
I spend a lot of time working on this part of my personal make up and if you want to be successful like I want to, then I hope you will too.
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