The fight is to be totally consumed with the moment. Nothing else matters. Taking things one at a time allows you to be totally consumed. If you are not totally consumed, expectation and judgment enter the picture and you will self-destruct. You do it to yourself because you are not totally focused on what you’re doing. Not on the mechanics of what you’re doing, but on the objective.
This is why the breakpoint is so important! With a plan, the objective becomes the breakpoint, and the commitment to the breakpoint allows you to focus on the front of the target and trust yourself. You can, through feel and trust, be focused on only one thing. See it, break it there. “Where” is so important, because it is the end, not the process!
The breakpoint is the goal line. The finish line of the 100-yard dash. It’s where every bit of movement is directed. It’s where you’re going. It is where the winners are determined. The losers are determined along the way. When you get caught up in the mechanics of where you are, your determination turns to doubt, which creates a loss of feel, lack of trust, and no focus.
The only way you can be focused is to know where you’re going. You don’t have time to think about how to get there – you just go. Trust yourself to get there. Focus and feel allow you not to think about mechanics while performing. You must be totally consumed with the moment – where you’re going, not how you’re going to get there. Determination and trust in yourself will put you there – not mechanical thinking.
This is why focus and feel are so important. You cannot trust what you cannot feel. Tempo and focus allow you to reach higher levels of performance. You must not care how you get there or if you ever arrive. You must only focus on going and trust yourself to arrive. If you are truly focused, you will arrive; regardless of what it takes, no matter the odds.
Resist analytical reasoning and above all odds, be determined to go and get there. You must know in your heart that you are better than you were today. Only then will you ever reach what’s within your grasp. Trust yourself. Go, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. Without risk, nothing great is ever achieved. The risk is failure – a temporary state of mind that, if dwelt upon, repeats itself. But if it’s dealt with and learned from, it goes away. Do not fear failure. Do not be afraid of fear. It’s impossible to be courageous if at first you didn’t fear.
The task is to consciously analyze, but then trust yourself to carry out the task. Without trust, you are stuck in analytical reasoning which is doomed to fail. Make your plan. Trust it. Believe it. Shoot it. Break it in the breakpoint. Never be afraid to miss it in the breakpoint.
On game day, there are only front edges and breakpoints, and determination to execute the plan regardless of the result. When you are totally consumed in the moment, the result is a given. The result is a product of determination in the plan and singularity of focus. Not how, but when! Make it. Believe it. Do it. Let it happen.
This is why the quality of your practice is so important. You must practice like you play. There is no tomorrow. No emotion, no judgment; just a situation you must succeed in. Being forgetful is good with adversity. Remembering is good with success. When the failure occurs, learn from it and move on. Whatever happens is neither good nor bad, it just is. It’s what you make of it via judgment and blame or feel and trust. Learning from your mistakes leads to higher performances. Learn what to do not what not to do.
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