You hear this all the time, but its worth repeating especially for the young guys new to the game.

Balance your life. Poker can suck the life out of you if you aren't careful

For the last 7 years I've focused wayyy to heavily on poker and neglected some much needed areas of self improvement in my life. I rationalized my lack of socialization and personal developement by telling myself getting really good at poker and making a bunch of money would help solve these issues. Instead, I just isolated myself to the point of avoiding all but 1 friend and my immediate family.

Turning 30 this year and I'm a complete shell of myself. Poker and pursuit of making tons of money has zapped the soul and personality right out of me. All that mental training of eliminating my emotions and removing expression from my face has left me feeling extremely hollow. Prior to going full time on poker, none of my friends were poker players. This led to a rift in all my relationships and I've lost all my friends because of it. Im sure some of them would love to see me again, but Im a completely different person now and I would struggle to even look them in the face. Im naturally pretty damn introverted. I haven't had a strong social circle in many years and my confidence and self esteem is at rock bottom which is making it really hard to open up again.

Don't make the same mistakes I did. Step out of your comfort zone and don't be afraid to look like an idiot or say something stupid. Stay busy, stay active, stay humble, and spread love. It doesn't have to be all blue skies and sunshine, just mix in some activities other than poker and have a passion for whatever it is you do

mods, feel free to delete this thread if its not supposed to be here. I just had to get some stuff off my chest because I dont see my therapist until next Friday haha

So true. I began to think that everytime I hung out with friends, I was costing myself money by not spending that night playing donkaments.

In the gaming world, one generally has been making the scores between 20-30. There is no way to balance your life there. If you fail, then balance your life and stick to hobby play. Of course, there are exceptions like me, whose life is gaming; in that case there is nothing to balance gaming with, just some outdoor and rest time.