
Poker pro Mike Caro on keeping the short term in perspective - gbacon
https://www.poker1.com/archives/28764/suck-poker-fix-it-just-saying
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gbacon
Caro’s comments are about poker, but they clearly have broader applicability.

 _The reason that you suck at poker is because you’re an emotional human
being. You perceive short-term events in the course of your life history as
more important than they actually are. We all do that; it’s human nature._

The lesson has two parts, the first being the drive up a mountain road.

 _Time is what destroys you and makes your poker game suck. If the descents
happened quickly and you could always see the next hill in the distance, you
would continue to be motivated. But it’s the time that passes not knowing when
or if the next hill will come that confuses us. The waiting makes us impatient
and causes us to lose confidence and make desperate moves._

The other part is detachment using the device of a movie.

 _Here’s what I want you to do. And it’s something I have often done myself
for decades. It will seem bizarre, but do it, anyway. Conduct your life and
your poker career as if it’s interesting, not as if it’s happy or tragic —
just interesting._

