What I Learned From 3 Years of Sports Betting

I was never the stereotypical sports bettor and you can read on how I win over 95% my bets. So much work was done to ensure winning. The countless hours of preparation, the frightening moments of unknown, my repetitions of strategies to maintain positive morale, the bitterness of losses, the blood, sweat and tears endured to have my mind and body at peak levels. I could go on and on because I lived it.

Here’s what I learned

My success was indicative of the quality of my life. My mental, physical and spiritual health indicated how well I would perform. I noticed the better I felt, the better I would perform. When my life is in order, meaning I’m working out, eating healthy, getting sunlight/fresh air, breathing properly, thinking the right thoughts, exchanging good energy with family/friends, maintaining a high level of discipline, I feel a calmness allowing me to make decisions that ultimately make me more money. Conversely when I am mistreating my health and abandoning the necessary levels of discipline, I am now distracted from my proper course and WILL NOT perform as well.

I believe many of my losses happened because I was not living right thus they were avoidable.

You must program the mind. For many people it is a reprogramming of the mind. Thoughts that do not contribute to your success must be replaced with thoughts conducive to success. I would make the utmost effort to think good, positive things and things that make me feel happy or are connected to the goals of my choosing. For me, it even took repeating and replaying these thoughts in my head similar to how a bad student may be punished by repeatedly writing “I will be good” over and over.

What I’m constantly saying in my head:

Generational wealth and financial freedom for the people I love. Let’s Go Champ. My mind is a magnet, money comes easily and frequently. Thank you for the abundance of love, wealth, happiness, success, wisdom, prosperity, and perfect health and I am receiving in abundance. There is infinite opportunity. Patience and wisdom. I am following my rules, I am reaching my goal then stopping. Champion of the World.

These thoughts became my mantras for life. My mantras became my subconscious thoughts. Thoughts were not just powerful tools for accomplishing, they became my reality.

All that we are is a result of what we have thought – Buddha

Breathing. In Hebrew, breath means the same as spirit. With that said, being conscientious about one’s breathing – being mindful of the breathing in and out. Proper breathing helps regulate the body and mind making one better as a whole. Breathing with the nose. Breathing from the belly. Breathing less often. These are simple practices that make a difference. And this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to breathing techniques; breathing is an ancient technology we can all tap into with research and implementation.

I used breathing to find calmness when I was anxious or fearful. I used breathing when I was tired or needed energy. I used breathing to regain focus and reenter my flow state so I could have all the mental bandwidth to solve these “puzzles” happening in real time.

Feel Whole. Pleasure is not happiness. Happiness is not wholeness. Read those three sentences again.

 In American society we accept the misbeliefs that pleasure is happiness and happiness should be what one strives for. Pleasure is momentary happiness. We all know too well that the feeling off happiness does not last. I used to believe there was only pleasure and happiness until I happened on the concept of wholeness. Now wholeness is happiness to the highest degree making it an even better feeling. Wholeness is living in-tune with one’s highest values and in total accordance with one’s identity. The amount of joy one feels from doing what feels rewarding, if it is aligned with one’s values and identity, is the feeling of divine destiny.

Victory is intoxicating. Greed is toxic. Napoleon said, “The greatest danger occurs at the moment of victory.” I am working to achieve generational wealth and financial freedom for those I love. The highs of winning, the expectation of winning, winning in general got me closer to my goal. Even if my actions don’t come from a place of self-centeredness, I deem it as greed because it was my intense desire to win and get closer to my goal. As I continue winning and the money keeps coming in, I develop a false sense of security, maybe even an air of invincibility. In addition to working on these psychological vulnerabilities, I had to create a boundary, a cutoff point, where I would stop working and choose to be content with my daily earnings.

Maintain a high level of focus. Multitasking is a sin. Undertaking too much is a sin. Early on I learned my mind needed as much bandwidth as possible to perform at my best. My mind needed to be singularly focused on the task at hand. If I thought about some other facet of my life like making rent payments or my social plans for the night, etc.; Those are distractions. And the same logic of me needing as much mental bandwidth as possible applies to multitasking. In multitasking, I won’t be as focused thus the chance of a negative outcome increases. Planning, scheduling, conversing with a friend, reading, etc. are all activities I could engage in while working but because they took a portion of my focus away I made the decision to only work on work. Focus!

There is infinite opportunity. I don’t come from wealth. My family’s mentality of scarcity influenced my own thought processes when all I needed to do was think abundance and understand there is an infinite supply of opportunity. Because everything we want in life exists and is attainable. More importantly, there is an abundance of it all – enough for everyone. So all that we want or desire is meant for us to have. I learned I didn’t need to force or overextend myself as there are infinite opportunities and resources available to us.

Follow the system you create. This meant following my rules/algorithms that were created through my struggles and sacrifices. I told myself, “You suffered for a reason. You experienced all this for a reason and it was to learn.” Through making mistakes, by still pushing forward, I learned what was needed to create a system. You must suffer first but create your own system that works and stick to it! Success will follow!

My system went outside the number crunching and decision making of gambling. I created a system for living my life. And this involved scheduling all the activities that allow me to be at my best like exercise, sleep, nutrition, etc.

In closing,

It’s wild because as I was becoming proficient at sports betting I was and still am becoming the man I’m destined to be.

Sports betting is merely one step.

I am not downplaying its lucrativeness – I am aiming to diversify.