I'm in the money, so time to play stupid.

Ok, I am kind of a phantom user; I usually just read posts. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] But I actually have a question.

First, I would call myself a very good beginner. I've only been playing for a few months, started with a bankroll of $50, and from playing $1 SNG's and a third place in a $1 tourney w/ 1200 players, now have $250. I play exclusively on PokerStars. Anyway, I have started playing $5 and $10 SNG's, but noticed a $20 SNG with 180 players a few nights ago. I was feeling confident and I had the extra time required to play, so I took the calculated risk. I played very well; I was in the zone and picking off bluffs left and right and catching a few cards too. I made it in the money (top 18 paid) and continued to play well and was 3rd in chips once I made the final table. At this point emotionally I was quite happy that I would receive $60 for 9th place, but also felt that if I didn't play stupid I could get at least 5th. Winning was also on my mind, but I was trying to focus on playing. Very early in the final table play, I picked up a hand in the BB, and basically went stupid with it. The actual details of the hand are not important because I was able to analyze my play as a series of bad decisions, but the result was I dropped from 40K in chips to 2K. If I had slowed down my decision making process, I would have folded on the turn and been down to about 30K. As it was, I busted out 9th a few hands later.

I say all of that to say this: After analysis of that hand, I realized I made poor rushed decisions because I had become comfortable that I had actually made some money. How can you keep this "I achieved my goal" attitude from happening? Does anyone have any "mental tricks" to keep yourself focused on making good decisions? I realize this will be answered differently for everyone, I'm just looking for some suggestions.

Thanks

Gross