BreakNRunner said:
I am frustrated with my game as I feel there is a better player trapped in my body, as I am what I will call very inconsistent in my pool game.
I am not a money player, but do like to compete in local tournaments with entry fee, and bar box fee and hate not come home in the black.
Some days I play just two or three steps under pro level, and than all of a sudden I return to the bad habits of a banger.
Miscueing, missing totally easy shots, and just playing like a rookie dumbo ball banger.
I feel my problem is the inability to stay focused upon playing at my personal best level, as I become distracted by many things including all the nonsense that is always going on in my life.
Yes I know that every time I play pool I will not win, but loosing because I am not focused, or make stupid mistakes is totally unacceptable for me.
I am asking those who have over come similar obstacles to maybe offer a hint or two.
"You will only achieve to the level you see yourself at, NEVER higher."
"You already are living the life you want." => "You already play at the level you want."
Both of these quotes are from a very successful real estate coach, Mike Ferry. They guy is 60 and plays to a scratch handicap in golf. Not to mention he's worth about $200 Million. He's studied success his whole life.
Your post reveals that you have fallen into a comfort zone of mediocrity when it comes to your pool game. Simply put, you have bad nights because you expect to. It's a pattern that's programmed into your mind and if you want to change it, you have to break the programming.
Picture yourself playing great. Imagine your posture, the clarity of your vision when you're on the ball, the vision you have of the path of the CB to the position point. The feeling you have before you pull the trigger. Get that person in your mind. Close your eyes for a minute and picture you there, playing great. Are you smiling? Are you animated? How do you study the table? When it's your turn, do you get out of your chair slowly or quickly? Do you jump up and race to the table because you can't wait for the opportunity to win?
Now, picture yourself playing poorly. Is your posture different? Are your thoughts muddled? Do you look at the table the same way? When it's your turn at the table, do you get out of your chair slowly or quickly? Do you move slowly to the table dreading the possibility that you might miss? Close your eyes and picture yourself.
Now, the mind is programmed by a lot of different things, but two are very important: 1) What your self-talk is. and 2) What you are doing physically.
If you tell yourself "here we go again" resignedly when you miss a shot, you're going to go into a death spiral until all of your worst fear fantasies come true. You'll be disgusted, upset, angry, tired and go home feeling woeful, but you'll also be comfortable because that's what your used to. Your brain is programmed to respond to what you tell it. When you tell it "here we go again" it says okay, run "death spiral" program and it continues.
So how to break it:
First, you've been talking to yourself for years, probably a lot of negative thoughts related to pool (and maybe other things). In fact, probably a lot of it is so bad that if someone else were to talk to you like that, you'd punch them in the mouth. Don't take it from yourself either! So be patient with what I'm going to tell you. If you find yourself going down that path, do the following:
1) Motion can create the emotion - Remember the things you do when you're playing well. The posture, the motions, the expressions and the mannerisms around the table. These are all 'triggers' to top performance. When you start to play bad, do those things. In fact, practice them in front of a mirror if you need to. Keep a 3X5 card in your back pocket and refer to it. Jump out of your chair when your opponent misses if that's what you do. Smile. Jump. Scream. Whatever you do when you're winning. That will derail the "death spiral" programming and put you into "pool domination" program.
2) Control your thoughts - Ask better question. When you ask your brain a question, your brain supplies an answer, that is its job. So ask yourself questions that have useful, productive answers. When you miss, you might be inclined to say "why does this always happen to me?" Your brain, being a good little brain, finds an answer: "Because I suck at pool" and then it goes along making that answer consistent with reality.
Instead of asking a loser question, ask yourself a productive question like "How can I run out from here?" or "How can I make this shot?" or "How can I turn this around?"...you get the picture. Your brain, being a good little brain, will supply the answer for those questions as well and then work to make those answers reality.
As I mentioned, this takes time and considerable discipline on your part, so be vigilant. Start monitoring your self-talk and whenever you catch a loser question, immediately label it as a loser question and demand of yourself that you rephrase it. Then ask the better question of yourself OUT LOUD. When you hear something as well as think it, it's much more powerful.
Try this about everything (not just pool) the next few days and let us know how it turns out.
The above method has transformed my life over the last few years and has taken a bunch of strokes off my golf game and given me much more consistency at pool. It takes constant vigilance though, old habits can be hard to break.
Good luck with everything.
RC
Edited to fix a few typos.
Sounds like my experience with marriage 
