I have mentioned top Irish professional poker player Rory Brown several times in the last few years. He has had his share of triumphs and tribulations, but things have really clicked recently. This is a normal pattern, as success is rarely linear, and rarely comes quickly either.
You have to work at success, and if you are lucky sooner or later you breakthrough. All the hard work has laminated in your brain, and opened up new pathways too. If you have read some of my earlier blogs you will also know that I do not consider luck to be random either.
Rory has enjoyed a run of great results, including coming 1st in the WCOOP (World Championships Of Online Poker).
So the usual question is what did he do differently? The answer is that he discovered how to exert greater control over his mind, and his wise words will be very familiar to regular readers.
I was full of life and embraced who I am on a whole new level. I found a level of contentment and joy in the present moment.
I found myself neither rejecting the past or projecting into the future. Whenever I found myself straying from that, I would meditate and bring myself back to the now.
Once again this is not rocket science. The surprise is that so many people are either unable or unwilling to spend just a little time and money on learning these techniques. Most champions use similar words when describing their successes, so you do not have to take my word for their critical importance.
During his deep runs Rory summarised the secret of his performance as,
I feel like I only needed to get out of my own way.
How often have we heard other champions using these words too? The truth is that our unconscious mind is stronger, larger, faster, and immensely more powerful than our conscious mind.
The problem is that we all live in a deluded world where we feel that our conscious mind is responsible for our success. But it is only when we can let go of this belief, and get out of our own way that we provide the fertile environment to ignite our peak performance. Then we find The Zone.
It is the secret to Rory’s success, and the foundation of my coaching programmes too. If you are feeling that something is blocking the success that you know you deserve you are not alone. Send me an email with brief details and I’ll suggest a few ideas for you to consider.
I will be in London this week with the European Poker Tour (EPT) working with some of the top players. I hope to see some of you there too. You do not need to know much about poker to enjoy the buzz and the adrenalin of the event, but keep your wallet at home! The best players in the world will be here, and they will show no mercy!
