Desire to Be a Great Poker Player

To become a truly great poker player, you must first have a relentless burning desire to master the game, as well as yourself as a player. Why is this important? Weak desire usually inspires weak effort, scattered focus and diluted results - and this is true for everything, not just poker!

How do you develop a burning desire? By getting crystal clear about your goals and objectives.

When it comes to poker, what are your goals? Why do you want to be a great poker player? What do you stand to gain from doing so? In other words, what is your payoff?

Take a few minutes right now to think about these questions and come up with some solid answers. Write them down. Then look at your goals objectively.

How important are they really? How badly do you want to achieve them? What are you willing to sacrifice to make them happen?

This exercise is powerful because it clearly reveals how strong your desire is. If being a great poker player isn't very important to you, if you don't have a burning desire to learn all you can and make it your mission to excel at poker, you just won't do it. It's easy to dream about being a great poker player - but do you have a burning DESIRE to be one?

If you already have a burning desire and a clear idea of why this goal is important to you, you're good to go! If, however, you found yourself struggling to come up with adequate answers to the questions above, the following tips should help you to get clear and ignite that little spark of desire - and turn it into a raging inferno:

1) What is your attraction point?

Even if you're not sure why you want to be a great poker player, you probably have an awareness that something attracts you to the game. Spend some time figuring out exactly what it is you like about poker. Is it the money? The thrill of winning? The challenge? The prestige? There are no wrong answers - you just need to get clear about what attracts you to the game.

2) What smothers your desire?

Believe it or not, there may be things that make you feel intimidated or uneasy about being a great poker player - which will smother your desire. Get clear on any fears or insecurities you may have and then address them one by one.

For example, you might fear that your friends will feel uncomfortable around you if you begin to change too much. Or you might worry about how to handle big wins if you learn to play well. Whatever your fears or insecurities may be, examine them and come up with three possible ways you could handle them if they were to happen. Write these strategies down and re-read them if you begin to feel uncertain again. Chances are your fears will never come to fruition anyway, but even if they did you would have a plan in place to deal with them.

3) Repetition is the fuel of desire.

In order to keep your desire strong, you'll need to keep revisiting these concepts daily. Keep your "whys" in the forefront of your mind every day. Re-examine your fears every day and affirm that you could handle them if they happened. When you do this, you keep fueling that little spark of desire and encouraging it to grow.

If you do this long enough and consistently enough, you'll automatically find yourself feeling more determined and focused. You won't be tempted to give up on poker because it seems difficult to master. You won't be intimidated by negative thoughts, fears and beliefs. Your powerful desire to succeed will guarantee that nothing can stop you!

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