I can do this.

We can do this. We can all reach the highest stakes. There is no reason we can't. It just takes work. Attentive work. It takes being honest with ourselves. It takes belief in ourselves. It's possible. There's no reason why it's not in our grasp as long as we are willing to give ourselves to the game. It demands certain things from us, but if we're willing to do what's necessary, it will share its secrets with us. Poker is poker, it has always been. It follows a set of rules that's been ingrained since the inception of the game. It is our job to uncover the deep secrets within the game. If we dedicate our life to it with attentive love and strong work ethic, we will be privy to the secrets it shares with us.

We can do it.

Like these posts gl w your goals!

well today went smooth. came in feeling confident. meditated before the session. and boom



#wecanalldoit

came in feeling confident. meditated before. and boom:



it won't always be a good day results wise. even performance wise - i didn't focus as best as i could today. but i feel like i improved my tilt habits slightly so it's good progress.

tomorrow is another day.

Haha, so I've been focusing so much on my Big Blind play, that my Small Blind play has suffered. I always thought my Small Blind play was top notch, but I've made some incorrect adjustments. I was actually a bigger winner in small blind a 8 months ago than I was now, especially in 3bet pots. I think I misapplied some notions of "balance" and gave up a lot of equity by playing some hands too passively. Time to dedicate the next few weeks diving into my Small Blind play.

Had a slip-up day. Multi-tasked heavily while playing. Watched youtube videos while I had easy action. Really disappointing but have to accept that it will happen once in a while. I did catch myself in the middle of it and forced myself to accept the moment, love my opponent, and play for the challenge's sake rather than the results, and it worked great for a while, until I got a text on my phone and it all unraveled. But it was very good to see the vast difference in focus that a slight gap of distraction can make. I will be no longer be having my phone on when I'm playing a session.

I am a professional poker player, and I take my work with the utmost respect it demands.

To improve my focus, I am going to do 3 things. Quit twoplustwo, quit facebook and quit this other site I frequent except once in a blue moon. I will also limit my computer use outside of poker. I think constantly surfing around has severely reduced my attention span. Its time to go back to enjoy one thing at a time. Learn to just sit and listen to music. Learn to enjoy reading a single book for hours. I think having a more purposely approach to everything in life will make everything much more efficient and worthwhile. No more wasting time trying to quelch anxiety by distracting myself with constant overflow of information.

Love you guys and Ill see you all around.

obligatory 2014 goals/journal thread Phase II

I made this thread not knowing how successful I was going to be regarding my goals. I've made past PG&C threads that died down after a month or two and I never achieved the goals I listed. This was certainly not the case this time. It was almost a paradigm-shifting year. I have grown fully confident of myself and achieving my desires. I've become amazed at what I can achieve if I wholeheartedly focus. It's been a wildly successful year to say the least. But it can be better. Much better. Hence Phase II.

I re-read this before re-setting my goals for the rest of 2014:

http://foreverjobless.com/the-defini...and-Life-Goals

My goal for the rest of the year and from here on out has changed from "playing 50/100" to simply "becoming the best HU player in the world." I know that's a ridiculously high goal but I know I can do it. I just have to put in the work. With that main goal in mind, I will create accessory goals. Also, to achieve such a ridiculous goal, I will have to have to have ridiculous habit changes. My current habits have created my current results, and while I am very happy with the progress I've made so far, I know I can do more. I know I can push myself further. So here are some life-changing habits I will develop:

1. Wake up at 5am.

This one will be crazy one for me as I have never been a morning person. But I also don't think I ever had a purpose to wake up that early. School never really interested me and I never had a passion for it. I have a passion for poker.

There are many reasons why I want to wake up at 5am. First of all, I will be taking yoga classes almost daily at 6am (another life-changing habit!) so I need to wake up at 5am to get ready and make the drive. Secondly, it is a matter of discipline and ensuring I have a productive day. While it is easy to decide it's going to be "just one of those days" if I wake up past 12am, there is no way in hell I'm going to waste a day that I woke up at 5am for. Thirdly and most importantly, few, if any poker players do it. It's a state of mind thing. I am willing to do what most poker players won't do to gain an edge, and that starts by waking up when the sun hasn't even risen yet. If I can dedicate myself to do that, I can dedicate myself to studying one more hand after a brutal day. I can dedicate myself to reading a book a week. I can dedicate myself to living a healthy lifestyle to maintain the most optimal mind. I can dedicate myself to making the necessary sacrifices to become the best.

2. Practice yoga on the daily.

Yoga and meditation is a great focusing tool and focus is paramount to success at a given task. Just a slight varying degree of focus can snowball to extreme differences in performance. Daily yoga will ensure that I put in the daily disciplinary work to keep my focus as sharp as possible.

3. Read a book a week.

Books are amazing way to expand the mind, and by expanding the mind, I expand reality. As reality because more clear and things make sense, I will find ways to do things more efficiently. Efficiency that will allow me to focus my energy on poker.

4. Keep a journal that I will write in daily.

Journals are great way to keep track of my goals and progress. It is also a great way to keep track of my ideas that I might forget if I don't write them down. Journals can also reflect my state of life and warn me if I'm heading to a dark place. And if I do end up in a dark place, remind of what lead me there and what got me out.

5. Write a weekly blog entry in this thread.

This will no longer be a brag thread about my results. I will like to contribute to the community and help people achieve their goals/believe in themselves as well. I will be writing blog entries with a focused subject every week in this thread. Some topics I already have in mind: Why Kanye West is the the best and why improv Jazz music is about the pauses and silences rather than the notes themselves. I think these blog entries would help shed a different perspective about our realities and how much influence we have over them. Writing these blog entries will hopefully re-enforce beliefs I have and bring clarity and focus to others.

Anyway, those are my goals for the rest of this year. I know I can achieve them. It will just take tuuning my mind for optimal performance at the tables.

Wish me luck!

Sweet. Could be very interesting, I'll follow for sure. And thanks for the link.

Bout no.3, read a book a week.
Can you say a little about what books you read? I.e., do you read specific books relating to goal setting, or focus (self improvement types) or do you find that you can take benefits from whatever book you read, such as a novel etc...

It would be good to hear which books you feel have brought you the most inspiration...

I like to read books on self improvement types. I will be first to admit that they can be a bit hokey and baseless, but so far, they've helped me tremendously. I don't think it's just one book that helped me a lot, but the accumulation of all of them that have helped me with my progress. Some books I've enjoyed are:

The Talent Code

Psychocybernetics

These are some solid self-help books. They focus too much on anecdotes and not enough hard facts, but I feel like it's a good start for self-improvement. I understand there are a lot of skeptics when it comes to self-help books, especially when it comes to new-agey self-affirmation kinda stuff, but there is definitely value in some of them. Like everything in life, you have to have balance and you can't veer too hard in optimism and belief in creating your own reality, but it's best to have self-imposed limits that are too high than that are too low. And these books help you raise/remove those self-limiting beliefs.

To be honest, I don't read much. But I do try to take away as much as I can when I do. Like, I've read A Song of Ice and Fire series and I've taken away some ideas that I feel have been beneficial for myself. It's not like I set out to look for these ideas, but they would come to me and I would tie them with my life. I think good fictions do that, and the better the book, the more ideas that feel true pop out. The best two books I've read in regards to these kinds of moments of truth and inspiration are:

Siddhartha

and

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

These books just gave me wavanes after waves of inspiration. Really strong inspiration. They've completely changed my outlook on life and made me more positive and confident in myself.

Books are awesome, man.

Circumstances shouldn't determine state of mind; state of mind should determine circumstances.

Our reality, for the most part, is a reflection of our state of mind. All events start neutral, and it is our projection and interpretation of these events that veer us to one reality or another. Our beliefs are the driving force for our reality; self-fulfilling prophecies are very real. Look around you. Pay attention to your circumstances in life. They are a product of your mind. Your mind affects reality; reality does not affect your mind.

If the above is true, then it must mean we can change our reality by changing our state of mind. But how do we change our state of mind? By changing our beliefs; our beliefs about ourselves and the universe. That's not to say you can change the laws of gravity by changing your beliefs since you would truly have to believe it in your heart, but there many circumstances in your life that could be changed by altering your beliefs about them. Put it simply "if my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it - I can achieve it." - Muhammed Ali

One last important thing; do not be discouraged if things don't seem to change at first glance. If your current reality has been created by your current beliefs, changing your current beliefs will not immediately change your reality. The reality formed by your former beliefs will stay in tact and will once again reflect itself to you. This your chance for true change. Observe the event without any judgement, because the event at its base is neutral to your beliefs. Then, if you choose, inject your new beliefs, and watch your reality change.

How we talk to ourselves shapes our identity. I personally had a very self-destructive self-narrative. I was very critical of myself and suffered from self-loathing. I believed this didn't really matter because I could still control all my actions on the outside. But this wasn't completely true, and the self-loathing peeked through my habits. I uncovered with my therapist that the self-criticism mostly stemmed from my dad. Every time I was critical of myself, it wasn't me who was saying all the negative things to myself, but an extension of my dad's apparent lack of approval. After becoming aware of this, it was like taking a load of my shoulders. I no longer had to take the self-criticism as truth. I could choose what I said to myself.

I chose to repeat this to myself: I love you.

Now that sounds hokey, but it's powerful. I've been saying this to myself in the mirror whenever I remember for the past month or so and a lot has changed. My anxiety has decreased a lot, I stand up for myself when necessary while becoming much less defensive about myself as a whole. It has also allowed me to perceive others who are self-loving and those who are self-loathing; the latter which I've grown compassion for because I was there before.

Here's a psychologist's take on why it's such a powerful exercise. It's a response to someone in a forum so the language is very informal, but the key points are there.



I won't go into too much detail, because this is actually pretty complex, and I'm getting tired as ****. I'll lay down a few pieces first, and then I'll say how they interact. Hopefully this makes sense. And please note that this is all a model, and like all things, will not apply to 100% everyone.

But the thing is, the voice in your head, that internal voice that keeps nagging at you, and the same voice that makes you want to post in these topics to PROVE THEM WRONG, is, more often than not, speaking to you in third person. It's your voice, but it puts you down, and it still affects you.

*And here note that sometimes, the internal voice is so integrated into who you are that it stops being a voice. It'll instead bring feelings of shame, or feelings to prove others wrong, because if they're right and you're wrong, it'll cause your reality to collapse, ever so slightly.

So that's one of the elements.

The other thing, is that we all dissociate. It's a natural reaction from out mind, and it's not -good- or -bad-. But what dissociating allows us to do, though, is take whatever's going on, and slowly integrate it. Some of the most powerful and recent therapeutic techniques use dissociation as a tool to bring changes in a person's mind.

Another thing is, the need for external validation comes precisely from the fact that we keep putting ourselves down. We -hate- ourselves, so we try to find someone else who'll tell us that we're okay. But what we actually crave for, is to hear ourselves say that we're okay. That we're good. We crave for self-acceptance.

And this is why this kind of exercise is so awkward.

We say something, straight to our face, and immediately, our inner voice tells us that it's bull****. It makes us feel awkward, as if we were being judged, and it pushes us to stop doing it. But no one is there to judge you, are they? So what does it matter if you do it? You don't actually have anything to lose. And yet, we keep feeling awkward around ourselves. And if you can't be vulnerable around yourself, what's even the point?

Another thing: Anything you say repeatedly, or write repeatedly, you start to believe unconsciously. China used to convert american soldiers to switch sides by making them write everything that was wrong with their country over and over all day long. Within 30 days, every single soldier was converted. And you can repeat that with pretty much everything and anything. If there's a belief that you want to adopt, you can actually take some time every day and write it down, or read it out loud every day. Look it up.

So in other words, this is the perfect technique to build in self-love, self-compassion, resistance to anxiety, and resistance to feeling awkward at what you do. You start, and it feels awkward as ****. If you add a 5-minute eyegazing portion to it, it makes the experience even more awkward. But over time, you become stronger, you can hold better eye-contact with others. You start feeling better about who you are. All because you dissociated yourself, allowed that information to come in, and reintegrated it into who you are over a period of time. Just like the mind naturally does so well by itself.



So if you're not happy with your life right now, try the exercise for a while. Maybe a month, maybe two, and see if it brings any positive changes.

Don't know how I missed this, very inspirational stuff.

How is your play divided between husng/cash?

Maybe like 90/10 cash/sng

Although, I've started to play more sngs as of lately.

I have to say i like your postings. Some posts inspired me altough im a bit sceptical about all that self-improvement hype.

Would be interesting to hear how you construct your gameplan in BB and SB.
And do you work with Snowie to get GTO-assumptions or do you work with own math approach?

Anyway.. best of luck for your goals.

I want to take this time to thank my opponents for allowing me to test myself.

Why I deeply respect Kanye West



We all know Kanye; the self-aggrandizing, completely unfiltered, egomaniac that makes the news for saying the most outrageous ****. Many people are put-off by his cockiness but the hate he gets always leaves me perplexed. True, he says a lot of things that are crazy, but the man speaks directly from the heart. He's not afraid to boast when he's feeling confident, to criticize when he feels wronged, and express vulnerability when he feels insecure. The man unabashedly reveals his essence, screaming to the world, "this is who I am, and you can **** off if you don't like it."

Truthfully, I was never a big Kanye fan. I always thought he was a talented artist but never felt he brought anything new to the table. Don't get me wrong, I loved College Dropout, Late Registration, and Graduation, but I never pegged him as anything more than an extremely talented mainstream artist. It wasn't until Yeezus that my opinion of him rose to that of admiration. I remember Jay-z talking about in an interview how hip-hop used to be the indie music of its time; the counter-culture movement that people who were tired of the generic mass-produced music drifted to. He expressed discontent with the current edge-less state of hip-hop and promised to bring back the rebellious aspect of it. It seemed like Kanye agreed with Jay-z when he released this ground-shaking single on SNL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SoKFycTmVU

I was stunned after seeing that. I sat there in silence asking myself "did he really just release that?" Not only was a middle finger to the corporations that he depended on, but it was almost like a middle finger to his past work. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was quintessential Kanye, and this was the complete opposite. It was like Kanye was saying "I already did that, I already perfected it; let's move on to something else; let's move on to something new." I was extremely excited for Yeezus and had high expectations for it - and he exceeded them.

What makes Yeezus such a great album is outlined in the very first song. The album begins with a grating sound, as if warning listeners that this was going to be different from his other albums. The "beat" is introduced and Kanye starts rapping over it. This is already alien, already uncomfortable and just when you think Kanye just about lost his mind, he brings it back with this: http://youtu.be/xnrLXDYnS6c?t=1m17s, giving us a tease of classic Kanye before ripping it away from us. He knows exactly what he's doing; he simply refuses to stay comfortable in what he knows for the sake of success. He throws us to the bleeding edge of music and invites us to join and explore the abyss with him, and he respects us enough not to dumb it down.

Creating an album like that takes guts. It is an extremely polarizing album, at least in the beginning, and I respect Kanye for refusing to compromise himself. He could have easily taken the easy route and created another Graduation, but he chose to push the boundaries as far as he could. His experimentation allows others in the industry to take risks. In Kanye's words, and I'm paraphrasing here, being crazy Kanye allows "Pusha T to be Pusha T." We've all had that party experience, where one guy's crazy antics makes us a bit more comfortable to act crazy ourselves. People are always scanning others for boundaries, and it's liberating when someone lives without any.

So take comfort knowing that Kanye is out there unknowingly yelling at disabled kids, interrupting Taylor Swift and accusing the ****ing president of not caring about black people, because no matter what crazy **** you say or express, it can't be crazier than Kanye. He's out there, fully expressing himself moment to moment, so we won't have to. He's out there pushing and testing boundaries so we can have the courage to do so as well. More than anything, he's a humanist that celebrates the individual.

"If you're a fan of Kanye, you're a fan of yourself." -Kanye West

I like that post a lot, enjoy reading this thread and wished you updated more tbh! (but cant hate since i rarely update!)

GG today, hopefully can play again sometime post WCOOP

The Importance of Choice: A Revisiting of the Matrix Series



The Matrix is a fantastic series direct by the Wachowskis that still spawns discussions of its themes and ideas even today. It explores ideas of humanity, meaning, purpose and choice. Many people were disappointed by the later two installments of the series, but I believe it's because it was different from their expectations. Fans that were expecting an extension of Neo kicking ass missed out on the shift of focus that the Wachowskis chose to take. While the first Matrix focused on the birth and rise of Neo, the latter two focused more on how Neo fit into the Whole.

Neo's role in the matrix is revealed Reloaded. While we were lead to believe he was the savior of humanity by being the One who broke free from the chains of the matrix, we learn that he was in fact just another cog in the machine; that his seemingly unplanned rise to godhood was in fact planned from the beginning. This may have been the first point of the sequel where fans of the original were turned off. By having Neo be just another puppet of the matrix, the entire first movie seemed to be invalidated. Neo is no longer a superhero, but simply another chess piece subjugated to control. However, this revelation of Neo's identity does not invalidate him as a character; in fact, it strengthens it by adding depth and sophistication. The revelation strips him of godhood, and instead gives him humanity. Neo becomes one of us; someone we as an audience can identify with.

So what is Neo's role exactly? How does he fit into the matrix? Neo was created because of problem of Choice. When the machines created the matrix, 99% of humans accepted it, but only if given the choice to do so. Meaning, humans would rather forego utopia if it meant the forfeit of Choice. A defeated and frustrated Architect was forced to allow humans the freedom of Choice in the matrix. With Choice, however, came uncertainty. This uncertainty, if left unchecked, would eventually lead to a catastrophic meltdown of the matrix. To prevent such a scenario, the Architect created the One to balance the accumulated uncertainty of Choice. In essence, the One is a walking embodiment of Choice. This is why he can do anything he chooses, including breaking the laws of physic and space-time continuum.

If Neo represents Choice, then Smith, his arch nemesis, must be Purpose, the antitheses of Choice. When a subject is fully endowed with Purpose, it loses freedom to choose. It becomes a slave to Purpose and individual Choice is gone. This is why in the sequels, Smith operates by reproducing himself in others; the individual is replaced with Smith’s Purpose. Purpose isn’t “bad” and it can lead to clarity of vision and drive; it’s just the nature of things for Purpose and Choice to collide.



Why, Mr. Anderson, why? Why, why do you do it? Why, why get up? Why keep fighting?! Why, Mr. Anderson, why, why do you persist?



Because I choose to.

Throughout the series, Neo is clouded with doubt and fear about his choices. He tries to understand the choices he’s made by seeking answers from others: the Oracle, Morpheus, and Trinity. They all gently guide him to himself for the answers, but he refuses to look within himself. In Revolutions, however, Neo starts to understand the importance of making his own choices; specifically he starts to understand the importance of Choice itself. He becomes more sure of himself, and the justifications for his choices become shorter and shorter. By the climax of the movie, when the befuddled Purposeful Smith tries to understand Neo’s nature by asking a string of anxious questions, Neo simply responds “Because I choose to”. He understands that Choice itself, without its brother Reason, is something to be revered and worth protecting.

We all have Choice, at any given moment. We have to choice to be sad or to be happy; to build or to destroy; to liberate or to oppress; to love or to hate; to laugh or to cry; at every given moment, we are given Choice. We can choose our present, we can choose our future. The reasons for our choices can be infinite and impossible to understand, but Choice is something we will always have. We are powerful, and I wish more people truly believed that.

Awesome post. I always thought that trilogy was way better than many critics and friends thought. There are so many dichotomies to dissect there and I truely appreciate your input on it.

Awesome post, but Matrix 2,3 are still not good imo although it have some great moments. But the Matrix was basically GOAT on multiple levels* when it came in my opinion and that is one tough cookie to follow up.

*storywise it came perfect timingwise for the masses. ppl were getting nerdy enough(this however doesnt change my individual opinion of it, just the masses as i was and i am still always the biggest nerd in the room). Photo/style were absolutely awesome, clothing / looks were copied by a very broad mass not just nerds/weirdos, and i dont think i need to expand much on how frickin awesome the visuals and choregraph were, everyone could see that. And the music, purrrrrrfect

Just read an awesome article on October 2014's issue of the Esquire interviewing 50 successful males about their role models. I'll post the ones I liked the most:

Matthew Weiner
Creator of Mad Men

I can't talk about mentoring without talking about David Chase, who plucked me from obscurity and gave me a job [writing on The Sopranos] and was very hard on me and very demanding and unsentimental about it. I was going off to start the pilot for Mad Men, and as I was leaving, he said, "People are going to come in and read it, and you're going to want to change it, but don't change it. It's good, and when the right person reads it, it will work."

Tony Hawk
Skateboarding pioneer

Stacy Peralta, who had a pro career as a skateboarder, was starting his own team and asked me to be one of his riders. At the time, I was sort of chastised in the skate world for my style, but he thought it was something new and different. He pushed me to try new things. He shut down the haters.

Steve Carell
Actor, Director

My second-grade teacher was named Mr. Blackman, and he pretty much sent me on my way as an actor. I remember we were doing the Indians and the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock. I was a Native American in a canoe, and I was rowing. It was all mime. And I remember rowing and then switching the oar and rowing on the other side. And Mr. Blackman - the first time this ever happened to me - pointed it out and said, "You see what Steve did? He rowed on both sides of the canoe so he wouldn't go in a circle." Having that recognition so early, something clicked in my brain.

Jason Reitman
Writer, Director, Scion

I grew up knowing that I wanted to make movies, but I was aware of what people thought of the children of famous directors, so I thought, Why would I want to go into a job where people presumed I was a spoiled brat? And so I went to college and went premed, thinking I'll become a doctor, and when my father came to visit, he asked, "What are you doing [going premed]?" And I told him I was scared. And he said, "First of all, being scared isn't a reason to do anything." And then he told me a story. When he was seventeen, he had gone to Montreal and seen these submarine-sandwich shops that were very successful. And he came back to Toronto and said to my grandfather, "dad, you've got to give me the money to open up one of these shops." And my grandfather said to him, "Look, I'm sure these sandwiches are good. And if I gave you the money, you could open up one of these shops and do very well. But I don't think there's enough magic in it for you." It was off of that advice that my father became a filmmaker. So he said to me, "Look, there's no more noble profession in the world than being a doctor. But I don't think there's enough magic in it for you."

Quincy Jones
Hitmaker, Bandleader

Ray [Charles] came from Florida when he was seventeen, and he had a rough time. He had sight until he was six and he was very independent guy, and we spent our entire lives together - professional. And at the time that we came up, every day we used to say to ourselves, with each other, Not one drop - this was in the forties - not one drop of my self-worth depends on your acceptance of me.

Penn Jillette
Magician

My mother knew she was going to die, and we were chatting right before she died. She had one deathbed wish: "Don't miss any shows." I said, "Mom, I can't do a show, you're going to die. I got a show scheduled tomorrow."

"You know, Penn, I've asked you one thing on my deathbed. I raised you to work hard. You're going to negate all of that on the day that I die?"

"Well, Mom, I guess I'll show up for the show." So I did a show the day my mom died. I did a show the day my sister died. Houdini, another momma's boy, his mom died. And he spent a year wearing only black and all his stationery was black. Deep, deep mourning. But he kept working. And if I had one piece of advice for my children, it would be: On the day I die, go to work.

Robert Redford
Actor, Director, Independent-Film Enthusiast

I had kind of an erratic, rough childhood. There was a lot of impulsive behavior that I think made a lot of people nervous, but my mom always believed that I would be okay. She believed in me. No matter what I did. I've always been a chance taker. I think not taking a risk is a risk. And most people were critical of that. She wasn't.

So, how do I respond?

As some of you know, I have taken improv classes for the past year. The most important thing I've learned in improv is how to listen. I mean really listen. Listening requires for me to drop any preconceived judgement about what the other person is saying. It requires that I stop thinking and simply be in the moment. This means not planning on how to respond (future) or building preconceived notions of the conversation based on previous patterns (past). It is only when the person has fully stopped talking, that I am allowed to formulate a response; in improv, the buffer time to think of a response is 0, forcing me to express without any filtering process. The goal of improv is not to be funny (this is thinking ego and everyone can tell at some level when you're doing this); good improv involves listening and responding without thinking to the last thing that was said. When this happens, funny stuff naturally occurs.

So how do I stretch this to life? Well, I could play improv with my goals. There are two ways I could achieve my goals. One is to force my way, struggling immensely, and crying when things don't go as planned, towards my goal (which sometimes works and what I have been doing for the most part of my life) OR I could simply play my first move then wait to see how the universe responds. After the universe responds and I absorb all the new information, I can then simply respond accordingly to the last bit of information (and only that) that will position me best to achieve my goals. Then, I can wait again for a response, and then respond to that last response and so on and so forth. Instead of fighting against the way of the universe (which is infinitely smarter and deeper than I am), I can work alongside it to achieve my goals.

So given a new situation, even if it's uncomfortable, how will I respond? Will I respond in a positive, detached manner toward my goal, or will I sulk and cry that it is different from what I originally planned for? Either way I respond, it will be my choice.

If you guys know/watch starcraft 2, I could post a video of a great match that encompasses what I'm saying and tie it together.

Poker is such a beautiful game. It's so deep; it's infinitely deep. Not only because the technical aspects of the game are impossibly deep, but also because the human aspect of it. Each hand is incredibly unique and a slight variation of opponent tendencies results in vast differences in optimal strategy. I have learned to always play with an open mind, to let go of past dogmas, and treat each hand as something completely new and exciting. This is not a state of mind I tricked myself into; it is the truth. Each hand is completely unique into itself, unexplored and full of secrets and subtleties.