Confidence is...

"Confidence"
in the game of billiards
can be heard in the sounds of chalking,
hitting the cue ball,
the drop of object ball in the pocket.

Confidence
can be heard in the tone of your voice
when you call "Safety".
Do you say it as a statement of fact
or as a question?

Confidence
can be seen in the expression on your face.
Confidence
can be seen in the way you move
around the table,
and in your pre-shot routine,
and staying down on the shot.

Confidence
can be seen in the behavior of the balls.
They go in clean.
There is no unintended bumping
of cushion or other balls.
Shape is natural and simple.
Cue ball travel is minimized.
Full control is evident.

Confidence
lives in the Spirit.
A Quiet Spirit is Patient,
allowing the shot to appear
without rushing it.
A Quiet Spirit overcomes all without trying.
A Quiet Spirit is Invincible.

Confidence
lives in the breath.
Breathe slowly,
and deeply into the lowest part of the lungs.
Let the belly expand while breathing in.

Confidence
lives in your core,
in your center of gravity,
in the lowest part of your gut.
Move from your core.
Strengthen your core.
Listen for the message of confidence from your gut.
Truth lives in the core.

Confidence
lives in your mind.
You pay full Attention.
You are focused, concentrated.
You see the angles easily.
Strategy is clear.

Confidence
lives in your arm and wrist.
Your sense of touch
is natural and precise, and
can create on the table
what you see in your mind.

Confidence
is an ethereal Energy
living in the Body/Mind/Spirit.

How do we create it?
How can we keep it
and increase it.

In one of my most profound discoveries,
I learned that emotions
(including confidence)
can be the result and the cause
of Actions.

Acting as if you are confident
will create confidence.
If you reproduce the physical actions
which occur with confidence
(even if you are not really confident)
you will get your brain to
fire the neurons of confidence
which releases the chemistry of confidence
which reinforces the physical actions of confidence
thereby continuing the cycle.

Caution:
False Confidence
is easily detected by the Body/Mind/Spirit.
It can evaporate in an instant.

You can detect false confidence in others:
they are bluffers, posers.
El Maestro taught me not to fear these people
(Fear No One)
for their game is weak,
they are trying to intimidate you,
take you out of your game.

Your opponent may strut and make noise,
drawing attention to himself,
but a stronger man remains calm and quiet.
If your Actions are the actions of a quiet man,
a strong man, a confident man,
you will confuse your bluffing opponent.
Ignore his vain attempts,
and he will try harder, waste energy, and weaken.
He will lose.

Experience is a source of true confidence.

Experience that lives in muscle memory.
Experience that lives in the memory of other victories.

A technique of NLP (Neuro-linguistic programming)
is to put yourself in a state of confidence
by replaying in your mind
times in your life when you
experienced a peak performance,
even in unrelated areas.

When I re-started shooting pool 4 years ago,
I had no confidence in my shots,
because I had not built up the experiences of shot-making.
Even though I had no
fresh pool memories of victory,
I created confidence by recalling
other moments of extraordinary success
against great odds
for example with aviation, yoga, etc.

Recalling your peak experiences
helps you stay calm under pressure,
helps you breathe more naturally,
get more air to your brain,
helps you think clearly,
helps you become patient, relaxed.

Where there is no confidence,
there is Fear.
You must not wait for confidence to come,
you must create it.

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams,
and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined,
he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary;
new, universal, and more liberal laws
will begin to establish themselves around and within him;
or old laws will be expanded and interpreted
in his favor in a more liberal sense,
and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings.

Henry David Thoreau

---

Imagine:
The laws of the universe working in your favor!
Becoming "a higher order of being"!
It's true, if you
"advance confidently in the direction of your dreams".

How can you be confident of your direction?
There is a System for this,
and it will not fail you.
Try it.

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