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.
Categorized in: Mastering Emotions, Mastering Stress & Overwhelm
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