Learning an appropriate precision-shooting mindset
I think most would agree that attending to our state of mind is an ability which, like any other, can be developed. We can learn to become more consciously aware of what’s going on inside our heads as we develop our precision-shooting skills.
Mad Professor refers to learning an “every-roll” mind set, a combination of absolute concentration, raw intensity, and single-minded focus, with our attention on the dice and on having each one toss end on the same axis and primary faces they are set on. “Over time, you should be able to slip into it as easily as an old pair of slippers,” the Mad Professor says.
Well, if an "every-roll" mind can feel like a perfect old pair of slippers, maybe our everyday mind is more like a starched white shirt and tie . . . or a strait-jacket.
If consistency of our toss is the sine qua non of dice influencing, it should be obvious that consistency in our mindset will play a role. We don’t want to be taking chances that an ambiguous mindset might somehow be working at cross purposes with all our efforts to take the gamble out of our game.
Close Encounters of a Mental Kind: The problem of Temporary Intensity — the feeling that we’ve got it all figured out
Let’s examine one of the crucial mental aspects of DI that Mad Professor mentioned, the much-heralded factor of intensity.
Mad Professor alerts us that precision shooting depends on having a passion for making each roll as near perfect as it can possibly be. Immediate gratification from each of our newfound successes fuels our intensity.
Notwithstanding our tireless efforts, though, encounters with near perfection can be rationed in such ridiculously fleeting episodes sometimes―especially in the early going―that it may seem impossible to long maintain much “success-fueled” intensity. We can be head-over-heels excited one day and then things might seem almost bleak the next. It’s why such extensive practice and continued patient experimentation are a must.
Observation and emotion
Astute observation is fundamental in these endeavors. Our vigilance to be on the constant lookout for any semblance of success is vital. But maintaining precision and persistence in the process is itself a skill that takes a real commitment of time and energy to develop. And unless our efforts are infused as well with the appropriate emotional capital—the right attitude—we’ll not likely sustain them long enough to achieve the consistent results we intend.
It shouldn’t really be a surprise that maintaining the right observational mindset requires a commitment of emotional energy. Our resolve to succeed is buoyed by any successes in our current results, yes. But it is also the increasing acuity of our observational skills that fuels our anticipation of continued progress. Only with a synergistic commitment of all this emotional and mental energy will we be taking full advantage of all the effort involved.
A balanced attitude
Yet, strangely, as Irishsetter has observed, we instead tend to reduce our concentration and intensity after having some success, because we wrongly begin to feel as if we’ve finally gotten things “all figured out.” MP adds that it’s because we’re no longer working on learning and perfecting something new and fresh. And as our intensity lags, of course, our skills become less consistent again.
I’ll just add what is already well implied by those masterful observations. While we always want to appreciate our dice-influencing insights and successes as worthy rewards in and of themselves for all the time and effort required; we must simultaneously embrace them as perfect opportunities for further progress.
If we’re not maintaining our balance on this particular expanse of mental high wire, we’re simply not reaping all we should from our efforts in learning dice-setting skills. It’s a juggling act requiring expert-level mental and emotional agility.
Seeing the future NOW
So it’s crucial to understand that our sometimes fleeting experiences with “near perfection,” though perhaps not ideal precisely because they can be so abbreviated and unpredictable, nevertheless provide important, recurring points of renewed perspective and opportunity in our continued skill-development quest.
It is thanks to these brief episodes that we are allowed the first quick glimpses of our own future, just when it looks to be, for a brief time anyway, right at our doorstep!
These alluring experiences are the gentle onshore breezes from the horizon of our own next level of development.
Making passage . . .
We’ll only be heading there, however, if we open up the storm shutters and let the fresh air in. We must be paying extremely close attention, resolved to put our mind to the new tasks we’re continually involved with—we must maintain our intensity.
We need to be blending a genuine feeling of appreciation for any sense of progress we experience with an unfaltering discipline of continued commitment and a mature expectation that further progress will be ours.
Only with such a balanced attitude and tuned-in state of mind will we be granted passage as each next-appearing portal of opportunity draws close.
Because our attitude now is always inexorably tied to the depth by which our skills will be enhanced later; we’ll want to increase our sensitivity to these opportunities as they occur and learn to allow the bloom of our passion for the process to take hold more readily, more naturally, and more deeply over time.
Next: Close Encounters of another Mental Kind: The problem of Temporary Intensity induced by impatience and frustration
