Your Brain is a Lousy Pool Player By David Sapolis
Let’s face it, some of us just think too much. We think about winning, we think about losing. We think about what can go right, and we crush those thoughts by thinking about everything that can go wrong. Early on, we learn how to train our mind to crush the positive with the negative. In This Chapter, I will show you how to crush the negative with the positive.
The Brain Is a Computer Early on, when you first began playing the game, positive feelings were generated by enjoyment, success, and the love for the game’s challenges. At some level, you enjoyed the game, and linked certain positive emotions to the experiences that you were having either watching or playing the game. Your mind, working as a computer, filed these experiences in a folder, which are part of a complicated operating system. Let’s call this system, “The Brain”. The Brain is a complicated system that operates on the programs and files that are stored in it. If you want to access a certain program, you need to locate it and then run the program. Sometimes that is easier said than done. The Brain operates and functions by utilizing several “Drives” to run these programs. Below is a visual depiction of The Brain’s “Pool Operating System”. The Brain’s Operating System relies upon several drives to function properly
something when we operate the program. The Experience file is like a giant memory center that records all of our “Pool History”. This memory center is divided into two folders: Positive Experiences and Negative Experiences. The longer we play, the more experience and history we collect into this memory system. This system contains files and sub-files, programs and subprograms that are accessed when The Brain recalls the files. As we fill these folders with files, history and experience, we collect Belief and Emotion history. These files are recorded to “Scripts”.
Scripts Scripts are sub-programs that are linked to the experiences: either positive or negative. These “Scripts” are accessed when we face similar situations to those already recorded in the experience folders. The experiences are gathered, and then filed appropriately. They are labeled and stored as either positive or negative. From these experiences, we connect specific emotions and beliefs to the experiences. These emotions and beliefs are stored in a specific script that is accessed by The Brain every time a similar situation arises. The Scripts, once accessed, become the operating centers for two of the 5 major Drive Systems for our Pool Program, Drive B (Beliefs) and Drive E (Emotion). Everything fed into those two drives comes from what is recorded into your experiences. By realizing this, it should be apparent to you how important it is to monitor your Emotions and your Beliefs.
In the below illustration, we have opened our “Pool” program file, and we discover that there is a file labeled “Experiences”.
Experiences Experience is gained every time we encounter Sneaky Pete Mafia Magazine - November - 2013
Emotions All of us have emotions. Emotions are both positive and negative, and most importantly, controllable. Emotions are not to be avoided. Many players believe that if they stifle their emotions, that they will somehow control them. Keeping them stuffed down deep inside will only turn you into a ticking time bomb. Eventually you will explode like a powder keg. Like I said, emotions are controllable. Going back to
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