[Percula]

A couple of things come to mind...

Motivation is a double edge sword. One side is a positive, that pushes you to do something, in this case play poker. The other side is a negative, that prevents you from doing something. Generally the negative side tends to stem from some fear or dissatisfaction with the task or something closing linked to the task. At the end of the day, the moment, you have to have more weight on the positive side than the negative. Time for some self inspection...

It is normal for a person to start a new skill go thru a boon and then a fall, then slowly climb back to a level of success. When you first started playing poker, you likely did not think too much about what was happening, made more correct plays than incorrect or you wouldn't be here now. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] But the level that you were thinking at back then was no where near the level/depth that you think at now. So now, even though you are having an "easy" time of it, you are still having to work harder. This can be a negative motivating factor.

Lastly, I think personal competition for excellence is far more of a motivator than that of competing against someone else or someone else's definition of excellence. Being able to look back a session and honestly say "I made no mistakes, I played every hand exactly right", is a goal that even if rarely reached, is very satisfying and will help motivate you to play more.