One of the biggest mistakes a player can make is to create a false intention for themselves. A consciously created false goal is like an assumption that in the future, your consciousness will catch you falling down. This whole misunderstanding begins by mistakenly equating yourself with your conscious mind. Then you start to think that you have formed a conscious intention. And when the time comes to use that intention, since you are still yourself, you renew the level of consciousness you were at when you formed the intention. To deceive yourself in this way means not understanding the nature of your psyche. In fact, most of our lives happen unconsciously. In other words, we often walk around as if we are dazed, not consciously seeing the reality around us.
Most people still believe that the body and mind are two separate entities. They believe that a person is a mind or soul living in and controlling the body. If this were true, then we would have constant control, and every mistake of the mind would be attributed to you as a person. However, we know that it is not that simple. If you want to identify yourself as a conscious self, you must understand that you are actually just one among many others in your mind's world. So, to see the full picture of yourself, you must consider all the subconscious elements in your mind as part of the whole.
Have you ever told yourself that you would do something in the future and felt completely sure that you would do it? However, when the time came, you didn't lift a finger. A simple example: you tilted and lost a lot of money, and after calculating the session results, you told yourself: “Next time I drop four buy-ins, I'll immediately end the session. No exceptions.” You felt completely sure that you would do it. After all, you are the master of your mind and want to do it. Why wouldn't you want to? But when that moment comes again, a week later, you are playing and below four buy-ins.
This is called a consciously formed false goal. You assume that because your consciousness dominated at that moment, it will dominate in the future. In reality, there is no basis for this, especially if you are tilting and the limbic system (subconscious emotional schema) is activated.
So, how to overcome these false intentions? The answer is very simple. You need to understand that conscious control of abilities is more the exception than the rule and prepare for it in advance.
This applies not only to poker. Again and again, you will expect many things from yourself, thinking that you control everything yourself. But the truth you have learned so far is that consciously deciding or believing that your consciousness is strong enough is not enough. Willpower won't help either, because we are biological, neurological, electrochemical beings.
