I wanted to be original but couldn't find a better word than "balance" to describe what I'm really pursuing right now. Sorry Nick! Your blog will always be much better than mine anyways <3

THE PAST

This is my 3rd and hopefully last Poker Journal. I want to have a defined place where I can track my progress, share my thoughts and help people that are now going thru all the stuff I 've been to get here. You can check my last Poker Journals here and here. Trying hard not to be biased, I would say those are pretty good reads for microstakes players currently trying to move up stakes. So if you haven't checked them out, this is the time!

THE PRESENT

I was thinking the other day about how I often miss opportunities to celebrate good moments. The day-to-day life can be so distracting that time goes by unnoticed. It wasn't until a few days ago that I realized: "damn, I'm a professional poker player". I've been playing poker for a living for the past 9 months and I hadn't yet realized that I had accomplished what I worked so hard to achieve for almost 2 years. This shows my clear lack of balance in life right now. I worked so hard to become a professional that once it happened, I was to busy to notice. I went from playing 5nl to 500nl in less than 2.5 years and it didn't even cross my mind to take a moment to appreciate that. So its pretty clear to me now that i need to change my approach, and I think this blog will help me with that.

I'm really happy that I found poker, and I've developed immensely as a person since I began playing. But I let it be my whole world, my whole life. And this obssession is not justified anymore. Obviously I will still have goals I want to achieve, but I dont need to prove myself anymore. I don't need to spend endless hours grinding and studying, pretending that this is what I need to do. What I need is to find balance amongst all the important areas of my life, many of which have been neglected. Poker is not going anywhere.

THE FUTURE

So today I started thinking about what my next goals will be. When I started playing, my end goal was to be a 5bb winner at 100nl (lol) and now I need to set new challenges for myself. But I want to do this in a way that I can give attention to the other areas of my life, and also possible new interests. So let's start:

Short-term goals (next 1-3 months)

• Crush 500nl
• Produce video content for my students
• Practice a sport regularly
• Take 2 days off per week
• Spend more time present with fiancee

Mid-term goals (next 6-12 months)

• Get to 1knl by the end of the year
• Start a CFP program
• Achieve a good shape (still not sure how I'm going to measure this)
• Meet new people
• Travel and visit at least 2 new countries

Long-term goals (next 4 years)

• $500k Profit from the tables
• More than that off the tables

I think this is it for now.

I want this blog to be a place where we can interact and learn from each other. I will be happy to anser questions if you have any. GL everybody <3