Motivation - Poker has become a chore.

Sorry to post in a rush but: 1) build a schedule; 2) stick to your schedule.

Don't put goals or measure volume through hands. Instead, plan you'll play x hours a week. Build a schedule for that, with proper breaks, study time, off poker time, whatnot. Then stick to the schedule no matter what.

After the week is complete, tweak the schedule for the following week if needed, then rinse, repeat, profit.

Standard burnout. Balance in life is key. There is suck a thing as playing to much poker. It's tempting to play as much as possible to reach goals and then play more once monthly goals have been met. Best attitude is set achievable monthly goals and play no less or no more than is required.

Hey Guthans,

I talk about this issue extensively in my Motivation Video :). I also deal with these issues in my Private Coachings/Life Mentorings in case you need more personalized help :).

Enjoy!

-SF

I remember I had this too years ago but mine was based on fear so bit different.

Anyway what Schnitzelfish says in his video is right you goto break down the problem into smaller pieces. Try to identify the root cause in the drop in motivation and address that. You goto figure that out yourself... ask yourself the right questions.

I can observe just one thing:
If you do not like working in a job as you call it modern day slavery there is something there which you obviously don't like. It may be that because of your structured playing style etc. that you copied something out of a job into your poker and you are getting annoyed by it.

If you love the game when you first started start from there. Exactly what did you love so much about it then and what has changed now?

After you have answered that question ask yourself what can you do to bring your current poker back to the thing you love and how you get in touch with it.

Anyways this may or may not work for you as I don't know enough details or can talk to you... but asking yourself the right questions and answering them, then making the appropriate changes will get you out of this.

Thank you all for your replies, gives me the good kind of chills to see that you all want to help. I'll be going through the motivation video tonight Schnitzelfisch - It looks pretty sick.

Dragar:
The thing that comes to mind is that I switched from MTTs to cashgame, in order to be able to produce a steadier income - could that be it? This was quite some time ago, probably about a year.

You would know that by yourself best

Problem with motivation is that it is internal, well the true motivation is. So I can hype you up etc. by making you relive your dreams what you want to get out of poker and other things.. but this is external motivation. Hence it goes back down to zero after the stimuli is removed over time. (This is by the way the reason why motivational speakers are a huge waste of money and don't work over time)

So true internal motivation can only be obtained by yourself.
You just goto face what you don't like about poker at the moment, fix that, and move on. Easier said then done I know.

Anyways to start maybe start writing down the thoughts etc. that go through your head when you tell yourself you should start playing. Maybe something comes up then you missed before.

By the way... don't overdo stuff like that. I am sure you are a stable person but I don't want to send you down some rabbit hole by accident because that can get ugly. Most things that show up in our every day lives like laziness etc. are symptoms of something deeper and for some people it can be pretty dark.

... edited out the phsychological explanation for why this happens. PM me if you want to know. I don't want to post here as it's offtopic and because some idiot may try to use it.

I've added you, pm me when you get on - I want to know everything about everything.

Hi Guthans,

Regaining motivation can be a very tricky and fluid exercise in personal development. Putting yourself in a position where your only option is to play for fun might help rekindle your love for the game. Hope you find your way back soon!

Good luck!

It's kind of inevitable that you'll feel like this when you're playing a lot for extended periods of time and when you're thinking of it as a source of income. Most days it will be just a grind, but for me when I have a big day I'll think that I just made what I used to make in a 50 hour week at my old job that I hated in 6 hours playing cards which is a pretty beautiful feeling so that can help keep you going. Also I'm assuming you play mostly online (because everyone does) and if that's the case go to a casino and play some live just to shake things up and you'll probably end up having more fun playing (also live games are much easier than online so as long as your bankroll allows it you can play higher stakes than you normally would when you're at a casino). When I'm sick of online I play a lot of live when I'm sick of live I play a lot of online and that makes it a little easier.