It is said that we don't experience reality, instead our perceptions are filtered through our beliefs and bias'. Our belief system is the set of principles that we use to perceive everything in our lives. I was recently reading about how the US army used to train snipers. They found the two best snipers in the world. The approach was to study the beliefs of these snipers, and train others to think similarly. The best sniper believed that

- Shooting well is important to my survival
- Hunting is fun
- Mental rehearsal is important to successful performance
- If I miss a shot, it has something to do with my performance

Compare that to most of the recuits who believed things like

- Guns are evil, they kill people
- Shooting too much might make me deal
- If I miss a shot, the gun is probably misaligned.

Similarly, in poker some negative beliefs include

- Poker is easy money
- I only play for the money
- I'm smarter than most players
- Grinding is tedious
- Poker is boring
- I run bad
- I can't beat higher stakes

Compare that someone who thinks

- Poker is a tough today
- Poker is a fun complex game
- I enjoy competing and outplaying my opponents
- I can always improve my thought process
- Money is nice, but it's secondary to enjoyment
- I can make a nice fortune by grinding
- I'm responsible for my results

About a month ago I reviewed my existing beliefs about poker after encouragement from an article. I realized that I shared several of the negative beliefs. I rethought about my beliefs, wrote down some positive (and realistic) beliefs. I think my game and outlook has been better since. I still don't plan to play this crazy game forever, but I'm happy doing it at the moment.