In 2015, I started taking my Super Smash Bros. Melee career a lot more seriously, attending and hosting hundreds of events. At its peak, I was attending 8 tournaments a week, one each evening of the week and two on Sunday. It was a rush having an event to practice for and to compete at each evening. Even when the stakes were small, the volume of events and the endless grind took a toll on my emotional and spiritual mood.

I use those terms because my performance was indirectly affected by my mood, but more largely affected by my discipline and my decision making. I always thought of myself as a poor discipline, poor execution player, with a creative mind and edge over my opponent. Whenever I was able to handle my execution, tournaments were exceptionally easy. When I wasn’t able to handle my technical abilities, I would crumble.

Warriors of the past would meditate before serene pastures, silencing their mind as if sharpening a blade.

There were times I would walk myself out of a tournament venue, sit outside or in my car. If the venue ever served food or had a bar, I would pace the timing of my tournament games around food and beverage. It was unwise to eat too close to the end of the tournament, the most stressful time. But it was also unwise to lose steam early into the tournament, especially since there was a tournament tomorrow and a tournament the day before.

The most powerful drug we all possess in our pocket is our smartphone and its ability to connect to any piece of information at any time. It’s easy to find ourselves passively scrolling news feeds, social media feeds, or forums and zoning out from the world around us. What is most interesting is what we choose to scroll through and where we choose to send our minds to when we are not present.

I am not a very sentimental person, especially when I was growing up. However, long nights of going to new and old venues had me preferring my offline content over what I found on social media. Connecting with images of my cat or the girl I was dating at the time kept me connected to the dream I was chasing and the life I was building.

It seems cheesy and cliché to appreciate family photos at work. The warmth sentimental photos provide now live parallel to social media access. I could look at my cat, or I could look at all the cats and all the cute dogs and those interesting new moments. Both offer powerful tools for distancing the mind and finding relaxation.

In a future post, I’ll cover how top players at tournaments operate by a hurry up and wait M.O., similar to soldiers in the military. When stress is segmented and delayed, training and best practices are enforced to ensure that the user can persist and achieve victory. One way users can wait is by practicing, keeping their skills sharp and their mind ready. The other way is to simply wait. Wait, relax, and distance the mind. For soon, the battle begins.