Master your mindset at December Boot Camp with Erik Stenqvist & Schnitzelfisch

Erik Stenqvist & Schnitzelfisch will be helping you get mentally prepared for 2014 in our December Boot Camp so we sat down with both of them to learn about what you can expect from them.

"Boot Camp is really valuable if you take advantage of it"

Erik Stenqvist

PokerStrategy.com: You've both worked on our Boot Camps before, what was your experience of the format?

ErikStenqvist: From my point of view it worked well because it also made the players aware of the problems that other guys had, so they supported each other and you really got a community feeling.

With everyone having their own personal forum thread they could start writing about their issues instead of keeping things in their own heads. It allowed the players to sit down and really face their issues.

Schnitzelfisch: There are three things I really like about the structure of the Boot Camp. First of all the motivating environment. Online forums are great, but with Boot Camp you are all Platinum+ level, which means you will be surrounded by players doing the same things you are doing, in the same place and able to help each other out. It gives them a really good opportunity to connect with each other, even after Boot Camp is over.  

The second thing is that there is a structure around it. Alone with poker videos you don't know what to watch or what to do next. The Boot Camp structure serves as a guide to really allow you to focus on the important things, without having to think about what the important things are.

Finally the participants get personalised feedback. As the players have their own threads, they can ask any question they want directly and get answers from their coaches. It's the same as private coaching but it is all in one place and you get access to other things, so it is really valuable as long as you take advantage if it.

"Most goals that players set are not specific enough"

Primoz 'Schnitzelfisch' Bozic

PokerStrategy.com: We are hoping that our December Boot Camp will be a good way to prepare our Platinum+ members for 2014. What errors do players typically make when starting a new year?

Schnitzelfisch: The resolutions made on New Years Eve never work anyway. They are usually dreams of things you might want to do, people say things like they will go to the gym three times a week despite not having been to the gym in five years. The problem is they don't think about how to make things easier for themselves, they don't think of realistic goals, they don't think about what issues will come up in the future and how they will prepare for them.

A mentor of mine did some research on New Years Resolutions and the big difference between the people who have not succeeded and the ones that did was they were not specific enough. The people who did succeed would say "I'm going to go to the gym every Monday at 10AM with my friend Tony" and then plan for the most common issues, like being too tired or travelling, then they would develop solutions in advance to deal with them. You have to change your approach to get different results. 

ErikStenqvist: You should set goals in a way that will help you reach those goals. Many people think they can achieve goals by relying on willpower and 'manning up'. Reaching those goals should involve a vision where you break them down step-by-step into smaller goals. If you don't know how to do this you will feel overwhelmed, lacking in motivation because you are not seeing the progress you wanted and it is so much more about enjoying the journey as you do it than just reaching the goals.

We try to teach guys to be their own coach, not only looking at what they want but also what they need. What they want should be what they need as well, but we have a tendency, especially guys, to want things instantly. This process does not work well for long term goals.

Schnitzelfisch: One thing I like that Erik always says is don't just set a goal of, for example, playing 100,000 hands. Focus on being the player who can put in the 100,000 hands. That is a really important paradigm shift. Not 'I want to do this', focussing on 'how do I do this?'. Do I have to change my planning, my nutrition, sleep more properly, get off Skype all day?

Also goal-setting is a skill that you need to develop, like setting habits. It is not something that is natural to us, it is not something we are good at immediately. By setting goals or implementing new habits, if you work on them constantly, it will be easier in the future to set really important goals and habits. 

I think the most important thing in the world when it comes to goal-setting is to make things exciting. If your goals are exciting, it's way more likely you will do it, even if these goals are very high and unrealistic. It is more likely you will do an unrealistic goal that is exciting than an unrealistic goal which is nothing special, because it won't motivate you. 

"Asking questions is important, even Tiger Woods has a coach"

Even the best ask for help

PokerStrategy.com: What are the most common mental leaks players come to you with in our Boot Camps?

ErikStenqvist: One skill that I see that the higher stakes guys tend to have more than the lower stakes, especially with the guys stuck at $50NL and $100NL, and it is more of a philosophical trait, they are very much stuck in the thought that "I am the person that I am and I think and react in the way I think". They tend to take their negative thoughts and emotions as fact when you introduce a new concept to them, they say "this doesn't work for me", they are less fluid in the way they think.

They have more difficulty in getting third person perspective as a player, in our coaching we try to teach them to be their own coach. The hardest thing is people don't want to face their own fears, they fear they will be less than what they are if they lose a pot or drop down in stakes. We try to identify these fears and put them on the table, that is something people go to a lot of effort to avoid, because that is the road of least resistance.  

Schnitzelfisch: People always think they should just try harder to make things happen for them. But repeating things over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. If you want to have different results, you need to change your approach. Not many people are willing to do this, they want a magical solution, even if their whole system is wrong.

That's where we come in, we have different systems for planning, different systems for getting things done, different systems for tilt, for setting your sessions. If you have the right approach you don't even necessarily have to work very hard, you just need to work smart, six hours of concentrated work is better than working 14 hours a day.

Asking questions and reaching out for help is really important. People who succeed have mentors, people they talk to, they have coaches, even Tiger Woods has a coach. Everyone who is really successful reaches out for help. The people who think they can do everything on their own get to a certain level, but they are not maximising their potential. Reaching out for help, asking a lot of questions and then implementing the advice they get will really make a huge difference. 

ErikStenqvist: If you have an issue, you can be pretty sure someone else has had it before you and overcame it. What is really heavy for you to carry is going to be very easy for someone else to carry. If we just keep passing things back and forth, the process will be much easier. 

Schnitzelfisch: If you want to get more from us, Erik and I are also working on a new blog together, where you can get a 7-day procrastination boot camp for free - it's called highstakesmindset.com. See you there!

PokerStrategy.com: Thanks guys, we look forward to seeing you in December.

Erik and Primoz have a very special presentation planned for December Boot Camp. If you want to know more, reply to this thread.

About the No-Limit Boot Camp

Dedicated Boot Camp forum	Coaching seminars
Our Boot Camp sub-forum will be available to all Platinum members and higher. Members are encouraged to either continue their blogs from the last Boot Camp or start a new blog, though it isn't mandatory. Our coaching team will be active in the forums throughout the two weeks.	The cornerstone of Boot Camp is a series of coaching sessions from our top coaches. The exact details will be announced in the news at a later date, though you can expect a minimum of 3 live seminars from some of the coaches listed below. We'll also be adding some brand new coaches to our team before December.
Your Boot Camp drill sergeants	7 Platinum videos
Look out for new great coaches to join us before December, as well as content from some of our best coaches including pleno1, Shevtshenko, lnternet, oblioo, sirrybob, Slam5, ErikStenqvist, Schnitzelfisch, mbml and more.	Throughout the two weeks, we will be releasing a minimum of 7 new videos for our Platinum+ members. This will include new videos from our brand new coaches - watch this space.