At school and in the office, in general, someone is snooping around and making sure you're doing what you're supposed to be doing. You can be negligent when they're not looking, but you'll still have to report to someone at the end of the day, week or semester. For most people, this is a deciding factor in doing what you should be doing. However, this factor doesn't exist in poker: you won't have anyone to report to, there's no one to expect or demand that you do anything. You are, for better or worse, your own boss. When the only one you have to report to is yourself, it requires a good deal of discipline to do what you set out to do.
... Or at least you should. If you're taking it easy on yourself with regard to what you want to achieve, it'll be very easy. However, if you're serious about taking your poker career as far as it can take you, your goals probably shouldn't be so prone to neglect. You must challenge yourself.
The previous lesson talked about realistic goals in building a bankroll, with the basic conclusion that this takes time, because the relative profits that are made are low compared to the limits we play at. If you get one or two big bets an hour, how many hours of play does it take, for example, to log on and play while drunk? I'm not saying you can't be very drunk, but recklessness can easily set you back weeks in terms of bankroll increase. That's not necessary.
You also need discipline when it comes to other factors, such as studying. If you tell yourself that you're going to sit down and carefully analyze your hands for three hours a week - because you know how important it is for your development as a player - your work doesn't end there. Making a decision is easy, it's actually doing it that's difficult. "Easier said than done" is rarely as true as it is when it comes to planning homework. However, as with the study topic, again, I want to point out that while you will need discipline to dedicate yourself for the time you promised yourself you would, the part that requires the most discipline is self-criticism, so let me talk about that.
Psychologically, most people are very defensive. There are, for example, countless courses on how to give and accept criticism because of this. I see some people because of work. If we were computers, receiving criticism would be very easy. Someone tells us we've screwed up, we look at the situation, objectively decide that they're right and adjust. However, in reality, someone telling us that we've screwed something up will trigger all kinds of self-defense mechanisms in our mind. The most common reaction is to claim that the criticism doesn't apply to us. The second is to argue (or at least feel) that we haven't messed anything up, and to consider the person who criticized us as ignorant: they wouldn't bluff in that situation!" or to blame something or someone. The third way of defending ourselves against criticism is to make excuses.
Accepting criticism and internalizing it is hard and, particularly for me, it's even harder to criticize something that I know can be accepted and understood. However, when you're asking someone else to analyze your game, in most cases you're not asking someone who is trained to know how to criticize in the best way, so chances are he or she won't be as subtle or as harsh as they need to be. And again, you need discipline and someone to help you. However, even after getting hurt and provoked by other players, you need to swallow your pride and keep asking for more opinions. This is the part that really requires discipline, but it will be worth it.
Now, speaking of painful situations, I have one more piece of discipline-related advice from this lesson: the importance of being honest with yourself when things aren't working out the way you'd like. Maybe you're not putting in as many hours studying as you had planned. Maybe you were in a terrible downswing and hesitated to re-evaluate your bankroll to see how badly you were doing. But you already know you should, and the only thing standing between you and something you can and should do is actually doing it. Discipline.
"Easier said than done." Yes, it is.
Translated and adapted from: Lesson #5: Discipline
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