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Message: [QUOTE="Liveone1, post: 1654807, member: 38392"] I've been doing some thinking recently and it finally hit me, "When you fight your biology, you lose."(Lord of War, 2005) It's in our blood to be result oriented. What we need to do in order to be successful poker players, or successful at anything really, is change the way we perceive results. Especially the 'bad' ones seeing as they are always in abundance no matter what journey you decide to partake on. Henry Ford didn't exactly hit it out of the park when he was founding Ford Motors and creating the engine to compliment the first series of affordable automobiles for the average American citizen on a massive scale. This man, for whatever reason, was not swayed in the slightest and stayed the course. There was lots of trial, error and failure (negative result), but in the end he went down in history as a pioneer and revolutionary with his name on practically every other car on the road. Ben Hogan wasn't born with an inate ability to swing a golf club better than anyone who ever walked the face of the earth before him. He practiced religiously and was not discouraged despite the outcome of a session or game. Again, there was lots of trail, error and failure (negative result), but in the end he went down in history as golfs elite of the elite. Today, his swing is taken for granted and perceived by those in the know as the basic's of golf swing fundamentals. Albert Einstein once said, “It's not that I'm so smart , it's just that I stay with problems longer .” What do you know, the man disproved Aristotle's theory of gravity, proved that light doesn't always flow in a straight line and created a theory (The Theory of Relativity) that, once proven against scrutinizing dismissive adversity, is so complex that it was discarded and essentially buried because the the global population census is too dim witted to comprehend it. There was lots of trail, error and failure (negative result), but in the end he went down in history as one of the smartest and influential men toward mankind to ever live. These men never empowered the negativity of their results associated with their conquests to hinder the progress they were destined to ultimately make. They created their own destinies as we all do. Had they succumbed to the many bumps in the road, their fates, along with mankind's, would have forever been altered. Even more admirable is how these men accomplished these feats with no blue prints to follow. We in the poker world have a plethora of information readily available to us all to take from the well. The blunt irony of the matter is that the accomplishments of these men is actually something that [B]should[/B] be taken for granted, "If a man does not use his intelligence, he will be lead to slaughter like an animal" -Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf. There's nothing admirable about them. However, it's essential to take that train of thought and couple it with a sense of entitlement and responsibility. Einstein's quote briefly, yet indirectly touches on this. If these men were alive today, I'm sure they would say, "I just did what I had to do". As a poker player the amount of "bad beat's" or negative results are infinite. You will never be able to escape them no matter how good of a player you are. It is up to you to train your mind to view these things positively. These negative results shouldn't necessarily make you feel good per say, but rather reassured. You should experience the same reassurance after negative results and bad beats that Henry Ford, Ben Hogan and Albert Einstein did each and every time they; added a new part to a car or engine and failed, tried placing their hands and aligning their bodies with the golf club differently to make proper contact with the ball and failed, or experimented with a new mathematical equation to prove/disprove a theory and failed. They were motivated by the negative results to improve and recognized that if it weren't for their failures their successes would be limited to say the least. These men were motivated by the constant negative results because with them came change. Positive change. Bad beats are no different. When someone suck's out on you then you should be elated. This means that you are playing the game better than your opponent and are making all the right decisions. It should be the biggest ego boost of all time. Each one should make you more patient. You should be hungrier and hungrier as you start to lick your chops. You should take joy in your opponents misguided confidence as you have just exploited it successfully. I can assure you that these statements, should you take them to heart, are far from rhetorical idealism unlike the American constitution. Though money is a way of keeping score in poker, it should be the last thing on your mind when you play."What make's me so good is that I can bet $500,000 on a bluff and I just don't care" -Phil Ivey. Poker sessions aren't about making money. The Pro's will delude you into believing that it is. Poker is about making the correct decisions at the poker table and exploiting other people's mind's as yours is the more capable, stronger willed of them all. As long as you've played your A game at the table, regardless as to what you walk away from the tables with that day, you should feel like a winner. Playing your A game is a positive result and the only result that matters long term. "I know that if I put in the time that at the end of the year I'm going to end up winning" - Phil Ivey It's all about perception. Lastly, I leave you all with this, "Reading is not an end to itself, but a means to an end." -Adolph Hitler Mein Kampf Are you destined for greatness? [/QUOTE]

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