[Adam22]

i used to be able to relate to the way this article was written and to an extent i still do. during the time it took me to reach a level i consider satisfactory as a poker player i wasn't really able to focus on much besides poker ( i am, of course, always learning and trying to better my game but i feel i've reached a level at which i can be consistently profitable in order to sustain my lifestyle which has been an important goal for me ).

i've always ridden freestyle BMX for most of my life and i kind of fell off on riding ( a broken leg and hand didn't help that actually ), i've always been an artist and i basically stopped painting, etc... in a way it was good because i progressed from .25/.50 to 10/20 in a pretty short period of time but i also feel that if i maintained a better quality of life/total happiness i would have maintained a higher winrate during that time.

i recall reading in some poker book about poker players who scheduled vacations for themselves in order to stay on top of their game and i think that's really important. i'm going to travel around florida with my bike and not even think about poker for a month or two in january and then come back to NYC and hopefully feel really refreshed and ready to tackle the games again.

just remember that money is important and a lot of us reading this are VERY lucky that we're able to get by ( and in some cases become fairly wealthy ) without spending our days in an office working for someone but people who have jobs have something to take their mind off of their own mental health 8 hours a day. poker players dont have that and often become weird and kind of mentally ill ( or so it seems ). try to forget about poker sometimes and just have some fun.