The 1k Post - Engineering Success, Overcoming your Mind, Living your Dreams
01-22-2011
, 02:51 AM
Note: I wrote this up as much for myself as for the community. These are my musings on what drives poker success and how I plan on adhering to them.
I quit my job to play poker full time. Through a mix of preparation and a massive windfall, I was given the opportunity to take a serious shot at my dreams at very young age. I approached those I respected for counsel and was advised almost unanimously to follow my dreams. I've linked one of the TED talks I watch on a regular basis that has impacted me on a very deep level below: (imho, it's worth a full watch)
Engineering Success
(albeit subjectively ^_^)
I frequently look around the world at our society's success legends: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Financial tycoon Warren Buffett, Apple innovator Steve Jobs, etc. I also consider my own conceptions of success as it pertains to my own life experiences: My Grandfather - teacher of logic and sound thought, SSL reg & Poker Coach BigBadBabar, the DC Founders and the empire they've built, the lists go on. There are those we look up to as a group, and there are those that we look up to individually.
Commonality #1 - Passion
Passion is the eradicator of laziness. It is the executioner of procrastination and the bane of apathy. Passion is the fuel that drives success. I strive to wake up every morning and FISTPUMP that I get to coach my students and grind today. Long-term success is not simply a byproduct of luck, running above or below expectation for an extended period of time. Long-term success is manufactured! It is manufactured by the decisions you make every second of every day. The student who puts in 3 hours a night after he gets off of work does it because he is passionate about becoming a good player. He still desires to crack open a beer and watch the game, but he doesn't... It is simply because he is overcome by his passion to improve himself and accomplish what he has set out to achieve.
Those with an unending thirst to improve themselves inevitably do.
Commonality #2 - Hustle
Do it today. Do it now. Hustling is immediate. Determine a structured approach to accomplish the things you are passionate about and START NOW! A football coach does not scream "HUSTLE DAMMIT!" at the players and then give them even the chance to breathe. If you're driving your own success and are struggling with accomplishing your goals stop giving yourself excuses. No more breathers, no more tomorrows. The Coach would bench you if you can't even run the wind sprints. How could anyone ever complete any daunting task before mastering the basics? Did Mark Zuckerberg know how to program before building Facebook? Did the DC founders master their games before they delved into the world of marketing and coaching? Spend an evening determining your life goals. Develop a plan to accomplish these goals and then destroy them. When you wake up every morning, take 3 minutes and define what would make today a successful day. Make today a success immediately, not this afternoon or tomorrow. "Stop watching ****ing Lost"
Those with a structured approach who strive to follow it at every waking moment have the greatest chance at achieving their goals.
Overcoming your Mind
(ironies of human conceptualization)
Tiltlessness. Understanding. Nirvana. Every poker player experiences the mental stress of the human mind. Many professionals will train for years or follow different religious styles to overcome the physical states of stress and anguish. Many will succeed in diminishing the impact that their own minds have on their poker playing and life. The ability to completely remove ones emotions from the game of poker would turn any educated poker player into a terrifying opponent.
Life generously provides us with many opportunities to experience emotions. Poker invokes some very primal and unwanted feelings in even the best of players. In my opinion, the concept of variance is rarely understood in it's entirety. It is one thing to statistically understand that you can experience a 100k hand breakeven or losing stretch. It is a completely different animal when a human being is experiencing the personal emotions associated with such an event. Most professionals I know are both aware of the facts surrounding variance and have coping mechanisms and/or logical ways to compartmentalize and ignore these feelings. None are immune to them.
Understanding something is completely different from observing it. Even to those that greatly understand it, variance has the capability to cause extreme emotional turmoil. It is only when one is able to observe variance and emotion for what it is and live alongside it that true peace is achieved. The calm within the storm provides the greatest win rates. ^_^
If results literally don't matter for day to day play, why not remove them completely? Your bankroll size is only significant when you either want to withdraw money from it, or want to move up/down in stakes. The amount you have on the table at any given time almost never matters at all. It's simply more emotional turmoil you're bringing into your poker playing experience. You are only able to control your interactions with the environment. The realization that everything else is beyond your control, and that this state is permanent, allows you to completely remove yourself from the emotional turmoil that comes along with life's variance.
Personally, I wrote a program to remove the $ amounts on the table, the $ amounts when I sit down/buy in, and I disable the cashier button on FTP. There are other solutions other people use. PM me if you'd like one.
Living your Dreams
(the simple part)
When you wake up in the mornings, full of passion and hustle, and blast through every day accomplishing what you set your mind out to do you are living your dream.
My Story
I had originally planned on delving into my history with an in depth explanation of my lifetime graph below. I had planned on discussing at length how #1 #2 and #3 downswings absolutely destroyed me emotionally and hampered/completely shut down my growth. After the development of this post, however, it seems quite pointless to even waver on my musings about the past history. I simply will look to the future and FISTPUMP my mornings away.
<shameless plug>I have been coaching full time now since the beginning of '11. I coach microstakes up to 2/4 FR and 6max LHE. If you're interested in speaking to one of my current students or just interested in learning more about it feel free to email me at avoidthe9to5@gmail.com</shameless plug>
I quit my job to play poker full time. Through a mix of preparation and a massive windfall, I was given the opportunity to take a serious shot at my dreams at very young age. I approached those I respected for counsel and was advised almost unanimously to follow my dreams. I've linked one of the TED talks I watch on a regular basis that has impacted me on a very deep level below: (imho, it's worth a full watch)
Engineering Success
(albeit subjectively ^_^)
I frequently look around the world at our society's success legends: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Financial tycoon Warren Buffett, Apple innovator Steve Jobs, etc. I also consider my own conceptions of success as it pertains to my own life experiences: My Grandfather - teacher of logic and sound thought, SSL reg & Poker Coach BigBadBabar, the DC Founders and the empire they've built, the lists go on. There are those we look up to as a group, and there are those that we look up to individually.
Quote:
"Look around you every day. Observe the people doing the things you want to be doing. Observe their driving forces, approaches to life, thought processes, and anything else you can wrap your mind around. Take these driving forces for success and do not mimic them. Instead, seek out the commonalities that these people have with each other. Incorporate these commonalities into your own thought process. Evolve them; make them your own. This is engineered success."
- My Grandfather
- My Grandfather
Commonality #1 - Passion
Passion is the eradicator of laziness. It is the executioner of procrastination and the bane of apathy. Passion is the fuel that drives success. I strive to wake up every morning and FISTPUMP that I get to coach my students and grind today. Long-term success is not simply a byproduct of luck, running above or below expectation for an extended period of time. Long-term success is manufactured! It is manufactured by the decisions you make every second of every day. The student who puts in 3 hours a night after he gets off of work does it because he is passionate about becoming a good player. He still desires to crack open a beer and watch the game, but he doesn't... It is simply because he is overcome by his passion to improve himself and accomplish what he has set out to achieve.
Those with an unending thirst to improve themselves inevitably do.
Commonality #2 - Hustle
Do it today. Do it now. Hustling is immediate. Determine a structured approach to accomplish the things you are passionate about and START NOW! A football coach does not scream "HUSTLE DAMMIT!" at the players and then give them even the chance to breathe. If you're driving your own success and are struggling with accomplishing your goals stop giving yourself excuses. No more breathers, no more tomorrows. The Coach would bench you if you can't even run the wind sprints. How could anyone ever complete any daunting task before mastering the basics? Did Mark Zuckerberg know how to program before building Facebook? Did the DC founders master their games before they delved into the world of marketing and coaching? Spend an evening determining your life goals. Develop a plan to accomplish these goals and then destroy them. When you wake up every morning, take 3 minutes and define what would make today a successful day. Make today a success immediately, not this afternoon or tomorrow. "Stop watching ****ing Lost"
Those with a structured approach who strive to follow it at every waking moment have the greatest chance at achieving their goals.
Overcoming your Mind
(ironies of human conceptualization)
Tiltlessness. Understanding. Nirvana. Every poker player experiences the mental stress of the human mind. Many professionals will train for years or follow different religious styles to overcome the physical states of stress and anguish. Many will succeed in diminishing the impact that their own minds have on their poker playing and life. The ability to completely remove ones emotions from the game of poker would turn any educated poker player into a terrifying opponent.
Life generously provides us with many opportunities to experience emotions. Poker invokes some very primal and unwanted feelings in even the best of players. In my opinion, the concept of variance is rarely understood in it's entirety. It is one thing to statistically understand that you can experience a 100k hand breakeven or losing stretch. It is a completely different animal when a human being is experiencing the personal emotions associated with such an event. Most professionals I know are both aware of the facts surrounding variance and have coping mechanisms and/or logical ways to compartmentalize and ignore these feelings. None are immune to them.
Quote:
"All my good streaks and all of my bad streaks of every length and depth have had one thing in common. They did not exist in your mind. They only existed in my mind. And this is true for everyone's winning and losing streaks. None of them actually exist. They area all mental fabrications, like past and future. Everything that ever happens happens in the present tense. But how can you have a "streak" in the present tense? You can't. And therefore, if you are in the present tense, which, in fact, at this time, you are, than at this moment there is no streak in your life. There is no inherent existence to streaks. The streak is there when you think about it, and when you stop thinking about it, it goes away. It blossoms and withers, all in your mind. And when your mind invents a steak, you believe it exists, because you believe what your mind tells you. But the truth is there is only the hand you are playing." - Tommy Angelo
If results literally don't matter for day to day play, why not remove them completely? Your bankroll size is only significant when you either want to withdraw money from it, or want to move up/down in stakes. The amount you have on the table at any given time almost never matters at all. It's simply more emotional turmoil you're bringing into your poker playing experience. You are only able to control your interactions with the environment. The realization that everything else is beyond your control, and that this state is permanent, allows you to completely remove yourself from the emotional turmoil that comes along with life's variance.
Personally, I wrote a program to remove the $ amounts on the table, the $ amounts when I sit down/buy in, and I disable the cashier button on FTP. There are other solutions other people use. PM me if you'd like one.
Living your Dreams
(the simple part)
When you wake up in the mornings, full of passion and hustle, and blast through every day accomplishing what you set your mind out to do you are living your dream.
My Story
I had originally planned on delving into my history with an in depth explanation of my lifetime graph below. I had planned on discussing at length how #1 #2 and #3 downswings absolutely destroyed me emotionally and hampered/completely shut down my growth. After the development of this post, however, it seems quite pointless to even waver on my musings about the past history. I simply will look to the future and FISTPUMP my mornings away.
<shameless plug>I have been coaching full time now since the beginning of '11. I coach microstakes up to 2/4 FR and 6max LHE. If you're interested in speaking to one of my current students or just interested in learning more about it feel free to email me at avoidthe9to5@gmail.com</shameless plug>
01-22-2011
, 03:23 AM
01-22-2011
, 03:32 AM
Thanks for the link to the video too.
01-22-2011
, 06:10 AM
[x] nohomo
01-22-2011
, 12:20 PM
01-22-2011
, 05:43 PM
01-22-2011
, 06:40 PM
01-23-2011
, 01:19 PM
01-23-2011
, 03:00 PM