Play the percentages.

In the wonderful book ‘Pleasures of Small Motions: Mastering the Mental Game of Pocket Billiards’ by Dr Bob Fancher, the author brings cognitive science to the game of playing pool. It’s a very enlightening book for anyone interested in the brain and emotions, in playing any game or sport well, as well as for pool fans.

He says that a lot of players get very frustrated and disappointed with themselves because they expect to play at their best all of the time. If they can pull off a difficult shot once, then they expect to be able to do that every time. After all, they’ve seen the evidence with their own eyes.

Such players discount the element of luck involved whereby all necessary conditions come into harmony to allow the successful pot. Pool is a complex game because it requires so much bodily coordination. There are so many variables involved that getting it right every time is simply not possible.

For easier shots the margin of error is greater, so less precision is needed. For these shots a high percentage will be potted. When the cue ball is far from the object ball, when the object ball is far from the pocket, when the angles become increasingly acute, the shot gets more difficult and percentage-wise the chances of potting the ball drop off the more difficult it gets. That makes perfect sense, right?

You’ll get the pot some of the time and you’ll feel delighted, but to expect to do it all of the time from then on for similar shots is a fool’s paradise. It’s possible but highly unlikely. This is the dilemma facing most habitual procrastinators. You pull off something very difficult once or twice and then think that you should be able to do this all of the time.

Worse than this, you keep setting up, or playing, only difficult shots because you mistakenly think that you should be able to do this all of the time and that if you can’t then there’s something seriously wrong with you. Soon enough you get so conditioned to missing the pot that you train yourself to mess up on the easy shots too through carelessness, or indecision, or self-doubt and frayed nerves.

Been there, done that, right? How about a change? How about just setting up easy shots and getting the pot time after time after time? Wouldn’t that be nice? Yeah, I know, easy is for wimps, but if you’re not consistently winning in the game of life, then maybe you should introduce some alternative tactics. It’s your choice to make things extra difficult for yourself, or not. That might make you a tragic hero, but let’s agree to leave that where it belongs - in the pages of pulp fiction - and make your life a whole lot better, okay?

Position yourself and take those easy shots as often as you can manage and leave those tricky shots for when you have no choice. More than that, don’t be surprised if you don’t pot the shot. No one gets those kind of shots all of the time - not even the pros.

So if you’re not sure how to make things easy for yourself, go and buy my book. It’ll make both you and me feel a whole lot better. If you think the book stinks then I’ll give you a full refund. I’ll even let you diss me on my testimonials page. Of course by now, you’ve probably realized my cunning master plan - that offering products to procrastinators is a sure thing. If the product works then you’ll be satisfied and grateful. If it doesn’t then you’ll still be a procrastinator and you’ll never get around to asking for your money back, right? (Excuse me while I clench my fists, look up at the sky and indulge in an evil laugh, <ahem>……… Bwaah ha ha ha ha haaa! ;-))

I once worked in a gas turbine test laboratory in Switzerland. I was responsible for running a test bed. When I arrived there we were failing, and having to repeat, every second test. It was a shambles. I thought it was shameful but everyone else seemed to shrug their shoulders.

I began to record the reasons for each failure. The majority of them turned out to be operator errors - forgetting to turn on equipment, forgetting to set the correct parameters, leaving parts out, running the test bed to failure. Each time something went wrong, I asked myself one of the most powerful questions that you can ever, ever ask yourself, “What can I do to make sure that this never, ever happens again?”

This question ensures that you go beyond responding to the symptoms of a problem and get to the root cause. If you can’t eliminate the root cause, then you must see what you can do to control the causes so that you don’t end up with results that you don’t want.

In the case of the lab, I revised many functions so that repetitive problems were totally eliminated. For those that could not be eliminated, I created a check list for each operator to go through and sign before, during and after a test. Each time that a new cause of failure occurred, I asked my powerful question and dealt with it - often by adding a new feature on the checklist.

The net result was that test failures due to avoidable operator errors fell to zero (apart from one time when an operator felt that he knew better and didn’t follow the checklist). At least that was the case on my watch. I left that company and returned on a visit a year or two later. No one used the checklists anymore and tests were frequently repeated.

Every time that you get a result that you don’t want then I recommend that you ask yourself, “What can I do to make sure that this never, ever happens again?” If you carry out a lot of relatively routine functions but keep having snarl ups then I recommend that you create a checklist and follow it diligently. It will save you a great deal of fuss and bother and it will boost your productivity tremendously.

I give one warning: it can make life easy to the point of boring. If you are someone who takes pride in being a hard worker then this tactic is not for you. In my experience hard workers, when left to their own devices, insist on making work hard. The guy who ran the lab when I arrived prided himself on being a hard worker (Man, we had so much conflict! He was the guy who didn’t follow the checklist and ruined my near zero record).

With him in charge, it was no wonder that we were working our asses off and getting abominable results. I doubled the productivity of the lab and got it to run so smoothly that it was boring. We’d set the tests up, let them run, sit back and then me and my buddy would while away the hours voting on ‘Hot or Not’. I had so little to do that I was even able to set up a secret bed in the basement for a little R&R after lunch.

So let’s do a little morality poll here. Was my behavior (after doubling the productivity of the lab and making it run so smoothly that I effectively made myself redundant) lazy, feckless and irresponsible, or was it the well-deserved fruit of a job done thoroughly and excellently? How about another question - would you respect and wish to be the hard worker (busy, busy, busy but grossly ineffective) or the Paganist worker (highly effective on a fundamental level first and then deservedly slothful)?

Dear Reader,

I’m thinking of bringing www.nickpagan.com to a close. I got into blogging after reading Steve Pavlina’s post on how to get income from a blog. I didn’t know anything about blogging, or very much about the internet in general, but I like to write and I figured that I things that would interest other people. Steve made it sound easy so I jumped on in.

I didn’t have much more intention than to be something of a Pavlina clone, but as I began this whole project, and struggled mightily within myself, I started to fathom out some deep issues about the root causes of most emotional and mental problems. When I had it figured out I put my theory into the e-book ‘Understand How To Operate Your Brain Perfectly’ which you can still download for free.

I wanted to get some income from all of this and so I started writing an e-book to sell. I wanted to create a book that went further and that tied all of the pieces of the inner mental game, how to solve problems effectively, how to turn intentions into physical realities, how to learn quickly and how to take action with highly effective and efficient productivity methods. It turned into a massive project that took months of further research. The result was the book ‘Make Things Possible.’ It’s as comprehensive as I felt I could get into creating a generic approach to getting things done that tackles all of the major problems that hold people back.

My general aim in life is to spend as much time as is reasonably possible in acting productively on cherished desires and doing so in a cheerful manner. The investigations, theories and experiments that I have done over the past 18-months have all led to that endpoint. My methods are the most effective that I have ever developed for myself. They are not a magic bullet and continuous monitoring and fine tuning is necessary, but the methods are simple, pragmatic and based upon practical realities rather than on the fanciful beliefs that a lot of personal development methods would have you follow.

Now that the book is finished and I have achieved a higher level of personal ability, I find myself interested in topics beyond the scope of this blog. Most of my time is now spent learning the ropes of doing business on the internet. What that has taught me is that www.nickpagan.com was not well conceived from the outset to become a commercially viable entity.

Consequently, I’m thinking of wrapping the thing up. What would cause me to continue is if I could find out more details of what the readership of this blog would like. If I had a clearly defined brief to fulfill, then I would find it easier to keep contributing, rather than the hit or miss, “will it prove popular and useful or not?” thinking that normally runs through my head.

I’ve created a short survey to poll the readership. If you want to participate then click the survey link.

Do you remember when you were growing up that there was almost always other people who seemed to pick up a subject or activity easier than you at school? They usually didn’t have any extra learning or training in whatever it was, they just seemed to have a natural affinity for it. A key motivation in life is to have competence at whatever it is that we set out to do and a lack of it leads to a lot of negative feeling. It’s embarrassing and humiliating if you end up worse than other people.

Kid’s are easily put off by poor results and they are highly motivated when they come out on, or near the top. Things that they are good at they repeat and become better at and things that they are bad at they tend to avoid, because they are painful. A virtuous, or vicious, cycle is then created, but only up until a point.

Natural talent is largely intuitive, which means that you don’t have an understanding of what causes the effects that you create. As you seek to do bigger, or better, things there comes a point when your natural ability proves insufficient. It’s at this point that natural talent often becomes a curse.

If you have never had to study and understand something thoroughly, then when the obligation comes to do it in order to progress you will feel enormous frustration. It’s almost like having to learn to walk all over again and this time to do it consciously. It totally undermines your prior confidence and if you’ve never struggled or persisted to get results previously and now have to do so then that’s a big smack in the face. In these circumstances, most people will give up.

It’s at this point that a battler gets the edge. Someone who remains involved in an activity, despite not having natural talent and through interest and enjoyment alone will almost always do better in the long-term. Such a person must study and persist to advance. Through studying the fundamentals of theory and cause and effect, a person can develop understanding of the whole process.

It is understanding that really creates competence and hence confidence. It is understanding that allows a person to conceive of advances and developments that have not yet been achieved, but that might be possible. It is understanding that allows a person to experiment and take risks confidently, because the effort is based upon sound principles and not upon lucky flukes.

I am person with very little intuitive ability. I mean, really, everything has to be explained to me, or I have to carry out experiments to understand cause and effect. That can feel frustrating and even tedious in the beginning when you just want instant gratification, but in the end it has allowed me to persist with things long after those with natural talent gave up. In drawing, painting, playing guitar, playing pool, dancing and so many other hobbies and interests, past and present, I compensated for a lack of natural talent by focusing on understanding the fundamentals involved.

If you have no natural talent, then count yourself lucky - it’s a gift.

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For this third part of the series (part one, part two) on Overcome a Fear of Public Speaking the Easy Way, we focus on performance and how to counter any jitters that you might have just prior to speaking.

Last minute jitters

No matter how much you prepare you cannot be 100% certain of how you will perform on the day of your speech. Your mind will play tricks on you. You might feel physical discomfort in your belly (it has recently been discovered that the gut has neurons, i.e. brain cells, within it, so a gut reaction might have some intelligence to it). You will begin to focus on ‘What ifs’ that will generally have a bleak and negative conclusion. The age old survival responses that evolved over the millennia are at work here.

It is far better to avoid risks than to enter into them and have to deal with the consequences. However, you are here for a purpose. There is no physical danger here (unless you are speaking to a hostile crowd and I really don’t recommend that when starting out). The danger is all imaginary. The very best thing that you can do is switch your present moment attention to the process of speaking.

Focus on the process

If your nerves are really getting to you then try the ‘square breathing cycle’ this is a yoga technique that quickly brings calm. Inhale slowly for a count of five. Hold your breath for another count of five. Exhale slowly over a count of five. Hold for another count of five and then inhale over a count of five and repeat.

Once you feel more calm, look at your notes, or even better, close your eyes and remember how the speech starts. In your mind, go over the section where you introduce your speech and give the listeners a context. Next think about the body of speech. You will probably have about three key points to convey, so remember each one and how you will communicate those points. Remember the stories that you will tell, or the metaphors that you use to convey the meaning easily. Finally remember how you will finish up the speech; how you will summarize it and the emphasis that you will give to your final point.

As you do this you will remember how you practiced the speech in front of the mirror until you got it repeatedly right. This will remind you that you can do the speech and that you have prepared thoroughly, developed a good structure, got the timing right, practiced standing and gesturing confidently. This focus on the process will keep you in the right state of mind and readiness to prepare you to carry out the speech competently and confidently.

Remember:
They want to hear you
They want a good performance
They want to see a competent and confident speaker

When you stand up and speak you will still feel some butterflies but through preparation and practice you have given yourself the best possible structure and support to give a good speech. The moment has come and you are ready for it.

If you falter, it’s okay, because you have prepared for the worst. A focus on the result (a desire for rapturous applause, but a creeping feeling that it’s going to turn into a disaster) will not help you. It is the process that creates the result and a good result can only come from a competently performed process. Rather than have the speech turn into a disaster, you can recognize what’s happening and recover it before that happens. Keep focused on the process. Keep focused on the sequence of the speech. Soon enough, you will have reached the end of well-executed speech - well done!

Additional tip for the chronically shy

If you find doing things in the public eye intimidating then go out to a restaurant or cafe and have a drink, or even better a meal, alone. A lot of people think that when you eat alone that everyone is going to stare at you and wonder who the freak is, but I can assure that this doesn’t happen. Take a book or a magazine to read, so that it looks like you have a purpose and it will distract you from noticing other people. Do this a few times and you’ll wonder what the fuss was all about. Because I often traveled alone, I got used to doing this years ago and it just doesn’t bother me now. In fact the reverse now happens.

I go into a busy restaurant with a book, or often a notebook (I sketch out a lot of ideas for blog posts in restaurants), sit slap bang in the middle of the establishment and quickly get absorbed in what I’m doing. Sometimes I look up and I get glances from people around me who, from their body language, appear to be wondering something like “Who’s the confident guy writing in his journal?” Most people would be too intimidated to do such a thing and so it’s intriguing when someone does that.

The same thing happens with public speaking. Once you get practiced at it, you realize that it is you who has the position of power.

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