How To Recover From Your Mistakes
Jan 17th
I was playing in a Texas Hold-em poker tournament recently and won the final table… largely because I was able to put my opponent “On Tilt.”
That’s a poker term for when a player loses his emotional balance. They get angry or lose their confidence and start making poor decisions.
When it was down to me and another player, he had twice as many chips as I did. I wasn’t happy about that, but what could I do, but do my best with what I had? So, I determined to do that.
At one critical point, I bluffed by going all in when I had a poor hand.
When the other player folded, I did something that I rarely do; I turned over my cards to show what I had folded.
Why?
To shake his confidence.
And it worked.
He told me what hand he had folded, and it was clearly the better hand.
From that point on, I slowly began to take more and more of his chips. He’s a very good player and he started against me with great confidence. Then he lost it to some degree and never regained it.
Why?
Because he had made one mistake.
Well, that’s not really the reason.
The real reason was he made a mistake and wouldn’t let it go. He kept thinking about it, regretting it… and beating himself up for it.
So, he lost focus and he lost confidence in his abilities.
That experience reminded me of how important it is to recover from our mistakes as quickly as possible.
Everyone makes mistakes.
Sometimes we make big mistakes.
Maybe you haven’t, but I have, more times than I can remember.
When we blow it in some way, it’s good to remind ourselves that “there’s always another hand” to be played. We can get back in the game and move forward.
But to do that successfully requires a clear head and self-confidence.
Both are needed to enjoy playing the game of life or business. Emotional self-control, emotional intelligence, requires perspective
.We can put our mistakes or losses in perspective, stay calm and perform at the top of our game.
When we do that, our losses don’t hit us as hard and our success won’t lead to overconfidence.
So, the next time you make a mistake, don’t go “on tilt.”
Learn from the mistake, gain perspective and move on.
10 Of My Own Quotable Quotes – Part 71
Jan 16th
1. No one has capacity to tamper with or influence another person’s emotional climate. Individuals make personal decisions to react in response to other people’s actions and attitudes. Ceding your rights to happiness only to blame it on others is therefore a misplacement.
2. Knowledge should never be complicated. The simpler you communicate, the higher the levels of absorption and intake. The more we try to communicate simple things in “deep” ways, we perpetuate ignorance. People gravitate towards sound, original and simple communication.
3. He who is slack to use his hands should never look sorry when others eat. There is no magic to productivity. It is merely an element of ensuring that the hands are put to their correct use.
4. Communication that is made without properly thinking is usually messy. Never react to any situation in the form of words when your clarity of thought is not there. When you are sober minded and collected, you are better placed to make a reasonable and fair judgment of any situation without swimming in the emotions.
5. Never underestimate the power of an affirmation. It is like fresh fuel to an engine that has run dry. Affirmations have the ability to unearth hidden potential in people who never saw themselves as such. If you have no positive words to say about another person, I suggest you use your mouth more for singing than talking.
6. People who make decisions faster have the ability to keep the world turning than the speculative, calculative and suspicious ones. While one should never ignore the levels of risks that exist, you should never take forever to make the decision. There is a time-frame that begins to impact negatively on others. Strike a balance between productivity and risk calculation.
7. The best lessons taught are not even in words or printed form. The best lecture you can ever deliver to any viewer is when you live your life honorably, with integrity of heart being the person you always want people to know and remember you for.
8. It is harder to get hold of the new if you can not let go of the old. The same hand you want to fill may already be full with what you do not need. Learn to forsake what simply occupies space to apprehend what it necessary for your destiny. Not all possessions are essential.
9. You should never entertain any requests from the enemy (devil) no matter how small. You have no business listening to the melody from the one who seeks to decimation no matter how sweet. You give him a finger he will soon upgrade and demand the arm. Channel your energy and focus on the one who builds your life.
10. There is no single thought (no matter how powerful) that can withstand the power of an utterance or an affirmation. You can never counter a thought with another.
