I play $1/$2 nlhe here and there. I'm trying to earn a little extra fun money and try and kill some time playing a game I love. One of the things I find difficult during my sessions (3 hours on average) is my mindset. I feel like I crush when I play my A game. But I find myself spewing chips if I get card head, forcing my action, and becoming impatient way too often, resulting in me being less of a winner than I can be. Or, if I end up winning a big hand and I have a lot of chips to stack, I will end up playing way more tight than I should be.

Even though I am aware of this, for some reason it isn't as simple as me knowing that approach is going to cost me chips. I am wondering what I can do to improve my mindset. Is there something you guys say to yourselves to refocus yourself into your A Game? Any tips?

Take breaks from the table every two hours. Try to focus on playing the same way whether you are winning or losing. Just accept that there will be periods when you're card dead and you're going to be folding forever.

Sometimes playing winning poker is like watching paint dry. You have to find other ways to keep yourself entertained other than playing garbage hands. Focus on other player's betting patterns. Try to pick up tells on other players. Focus on reading V's hands when you've folded. Be ready to play when you actually get a playable hand.

Do you have trouble with focusing for 3 hours at a time in other areas of your life?

If no, then do what you do in those areas at the poker table to maintain focus.

More probably the answer is yes. This is part of the main paradox of poker. It attracts people who struggle with the very temperaments and habits necessary to be successful at it. Poker requires patience, discipline, strong study habits and a focus on others. This subject comes up regularly and the answer is that you are going to have to change who you are as an individual. You can't turn these aspects on and off like a light. It can be done. There will be lots of suggestions and many can work. But at the end of them, you won't be the same person if you do them.

The chances of success are low. Most people don't play poker because they want to be patient and disciplined.

You say that you spew when you're card dead so, reading between the lines, it seems like you only 'play your A game' when you're getting good cards. That may be an overly simplistic translation of the OP but it's easy to play well when the deck is hitting you.

Your A game shouldn't be situation-dependent and you should be prepared for (and expect) unfavourable circumstances.

Study LAG play. I don't recommend making it your A game, but it should help you find a balance when "card dead."

If you choose this lag path as your A game, prepare to lose lots of chips before becoming a good lag.

Imo ideal play style is somewhere in between.

at 1/2 the rake is so proportionately high everywhere that predominately laggy play just isn't going to be optimal

Venice is correct. Good solid play isn't fun most of the time. It's quite often boring an emotionally difficult. You're playing to have fun primarily. That's fine. It's more fun to win than lose. So you have to decide if its worth more to you to have fun than to make money in those times you describe. It's nice on those nights when the two align but its not always going to happen. Consciously asking yourself that question when contemplating a known -EV action may help you. It helps me.

First of all I think Venice's response should be framed on your wall. He is spot on. I have a ton of issues with attention / focus / patience... It is a general life problem that is ever so slowly improving after 800 hours of live poker.

But I think this quote from your OP is a fundamental barrier to being disciplined and patient at the table. The solid regulars I know don't just play for fun or to "kill time." They are extremely competitive and take the game seriously, and I'm not just talking about the 2p2 community. I'm talking about a middle-aged regular I know who has never posted a hand history in his life, but refers to poker as "going to war" and then sits and folds for 2 hours, raises, and then goes back to folding. He refers to playing poker as being a boxer in the ring that gets punched in the face again and again, only to take a breath, keep cool, and figure out the best way to eventually knock his opponent out.

I'm not saying to be a nit, I'm saying that being card dead for 2 hours is an absolutely normal, standard occurrence in poker. If you aren't disciplined enough to wait it out, it's like signing up for a marathon but can't even run a mile.

Playing poker isn't only about playing actual cards. As mentioned above, it's about watchful waiting. Being out of a hand is an opportunity to study the table without distraction.

If the case is that there aren't interesting enough things happening at your table to warrant your attention when you're out of a hand, this means you should be exploiting the table's passiveness/predictability and playing even your trash cards in position.

At least you lock down and don't spew off once you're ahead. I see so many people win a few pots, double up from like $300 to $700 and then it's just a 2 hour slide back to $0 because all of a sudden you're like "87s, OOP for $25 Pre...? Why not I'm up" and you just slowly start to dwindle.

I used to do it a lot.
Play good to get from like $300 to $700-1,000 and then you're up so why not 4-bet an old-man-nit with K9

Pretty easy to diagnose actually/

You're trying to earn money.

You have time restrictions.

Both lead to basically you turning poker into a job-esque task. You basically feel that you need to make x money because you are at the table for y hours, just like a job.

So what happens when you are card dead...

You force yourself to "try" harder.

This part is easy and most people feel the same way: it feels far worse to lose it than to never had it.

You would need to rationalize it internally in your own way, something that people probably won't be able to help you in a forum.

Rationalization. Figure out reasons why you feel how you feel to those issues that I identified, then you can move forward.