Ramam, I used to be pretty good at Chess but found that I didn't like the mental stress involved and the practice needed to be good. Here we mainly play 8 ball pool not snooker. Your right that snooker and pool require alot of playing to get good and it has been my experience that it's a game that you can screw up by thinking too much, kinda like recovery. You got to let go and do it not think it.
When I was new to recovery I thought I could "get it" if I studied enought, so Ive got a whole shelf full of recovery books but found out recovery is about feelings.
Snooker and pool is the same, you want to shoot when it feels right (like Zen) and don't think too much and when you miss, let it go and don't beat yourself up. After all it's just a game, nobody died and your still clean. Take care, Bob.

Hi Raman,
In my experience, unrealistic expectations of not only others, but of myself, have led me to feel pain in situations where being hurt is kind oif silly. Several years ago my sponsor was kind enough (HA HA, didn't feel that way at the time) to point out that I was also addicted to feeling sorry for myself. After looking at this subject extensively I came to the conclusion that he was right. I am willing to go to almost any length, making mountains out of molehills, to make myself miserable. That is my disease trying to haul my butt back out the door to die. Today I recognize that I am not perfect, and I never will be, nor will any of the fallible humans in my life. When things get me down I run through a checklist to determine how important my current "crisis" really is. 1) Will it really make a difference tomorrow? 2) In a year? 3) In ten years? or a hundred? I finally came to the conclusion that if whatever the "crisis of the moment" is, will not result in the extinction of humanity, I need to put it into perspective, because my perspective is usually warped!


Lon

I have learned to do something totally alien to my pessimistic nature and that is look for the good in every experience.  Sometimes, this is easier than others, but the very act of trying to find the good usually sets me in a better frame of mind.  At the very least, I can usually laugh at myself for getting into a complete snit over something relatively minor.  Because, when I really think about it, if the biggest problem I have today is losing a game or, in one recent case, spilling coffee all over myself . . . well, then life is pretty good.

Thanks Raman.  It was one of those blinding flashes followed by a well, duh!  My therapist actually laughed at me when I told her about it :) Jaime