Tuesday 29 June 2021

Hitting the Proverbial Gambling Wall

When you think about gambling, what comes to mind?

We know the betting part. That's important to our success or failure but there's much more to it than that. 

I always use to think the only person who kept a journal was some old bloke who lived on the moors, wore a hand-knitted jumper, and had a bird book in the side pocket of his anorak. The thought of detailing your stream of consciousness has a touch of the hippie mindset if not new-age thinking, therapy, bordering on mumbo jumbo. 

However, we can learn something from everyone and, hopefully, more importantly, about ourselves. 

We think we know ourselves but do we really? 

It's a strange happening but we see those around us falling in the same hole time after time. 

It's as though their life is following a set pattern, cycle, or route which we can see perfectly well but they are strangely unconscious of their journey which says turn right. They simply never consider turning left or going straight ahead. It's like you love UK Flat turf racing but never consider the melbourne cup offers when you've got a fancy and you really know you are doing yourself down but somehow we fall short.  

We are in many respects a prisoner of our mind. All those things that have brought us to this point in time. We are a product of our nature and nurture and that may be a blessing or a curse. 

The unconscious mind is great at helping us through life - so we don't really need to think. You don't concentrate to get dressed each morning. You don't have to think I need to take a breath of fresh joyous air to keep alive. But think (oh no, you can't) of all those things you do without thinking. 

If everything you think is an exceptionally good idea then you are on to a winner but I can imagine most of us don't. The trouble is that we just don't observe, for the most part, aspects that may haunt our lives. 

Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis was all about making the unconscious conscious. And one way of doing that is with a journal or diary. 

Hitting the Proverbial Gambling Wall. 

What does that mean?
 
Well, I am sure you have noticed how you think about gambling hampers you. In truth, we are at the mercy of the human condition and how the brain works. 

So you may find it difficult to change even the most simple of thoughts or actions.

I considered this point the other day about two-year-old horse racing and odds-on. 

I don't know about you, but the idea of betting on an odds-on shot is zero. However, the very fact of seeing an odds-on horse in opposition is like seeing a wall. A skyscraper that touches the clouds. There is no way of looking over the top or around the sides so I don't think what might be beyond those confines or the advantage it may bring. 

For all I know, paradise is literally waiting to be found.

The building doesn't exist - it's all in the mind. 

But the thought of the odds-on horse, let's say, from Archie Watson may put off any thought of betting in the race. You may have a completely different mindset and that is your advantage.  

That reputed star performer concludes many gambler's thoughts.  

This is a problem of the mind. 

You have no interest in betting on the odds-on shot but that very fear of it being unstoppable may knock your thinking on the head. 

So every odds-on horse in opposition makes that race null and void. 

It's a crazy mindset. 

Why? 

Because it gives no opportunity when there is every chance that the horse may lose.

How many times do you see a two-year-old at prohibitive odds beaten? Lots. In fact, debutantes are even more likely to fall on their sword because they are learning the ropes, the jockey is very unlikely to want to give the horse a hard race and anything can happen. I have researched each and every two-year-old horse trainer. And very few have over a 50% strike race with odds-on shots. 

So they are more than likely poor value even on a good day. 

However, win or lose this has nothing to do with the odds-on shot. It has everything to do with how we perceive it. 

The only way to consider an odds-on horse is to consider it can be beaten. 

Thinking it is akin to a towering wall means you have no options left. That is a disastrous way of thinking. 

The horse may win. It doesn't matter. Why? Because many times it will lose. With the old mindset, you wouldn't have bet on any horse in opposition. You were beaten before the race even started. 

However, thinking there may be a chance of some other horse winning will give you the opportunity to see that come to fruition. 

Don't let your mind be the biggest barrier to your success.

Think, write, and detail those patterns of thought and question them because they often make no sense at all.