to settle for less
If you mean his advice to focus on playing well rather than on winning, that was my favorite message from the book. Different strokes...
pj
chgo
The second section seems to be telling you to settle for what you are, not strive for what you can be. You will never be the best if you accept second rate.
I never did much traveling but nobody had to like what I could give them if they came to me. Had I accepted less was good enough I would never have reached that level. The Pleasure of Small Motions seems to be telling people to be content with less. I have ran with the big dogs in a handful of activities over the years. I didn't do that by settling.
One of the things I do when I go to an event is read the field. Twenty or thirty percent will acknowledge they can't beat several competitors before the event begins. These people are generally write-offs as a group although one occasionally catches fire. When they say there is no chance of beating a few big guns at the event, there is almost no chance they can beat the ones sincerely trying to beat those same big guns. I also check what else people are complaining about. In pool, lights, cloth, whatever conditions they are finding to excuse a loss.
Often out of a 128 person field I am left with maybe 20-30 to beat, a much more manageable number! Big fields intimidated me when I first started competing, now I realize they are mostly chaff. Separate the real competitors and there aren't that many. Consider that in a pool tournament some have to take each other out so you will never see all of the major threats to you and things become quite manageable.
Those that have accepted the second half of Pleasure are in with the chaff. Your odds of winning might be in single digits at best but they are approaching zero if you aren't trying to win.
A final tip to those trying to read and learn: Once you have read the field, stay away from those not trying to win! Their attitude is contagious and will take your edge if you hang around listening to them. Associate with winners if you can, if not, associate with those sincerely trying to win. If you can't do either, find a quiet spot to be within yourself, something you need to spend some time doing anyway. I set a record that some of the best in the world had chased at one time or another over the last fifteen years. I did it not because I was a better competitor but because I pulled my mental game together at the right time. Pleasure would have told me to settle for less because I was well past my best years before picking up a pistol.
Hu
