Just about every error has a technical and psychological component: get good at discovering those connections

Just about every error has a technical and psychological component: get good at discovering those connections

The key to pursuing excellence is to embrace an organic, long-term learning process, and not to live in a shell of static, safe mediocrity. Usually, growth comes at the expense of previous comfort or safety.

We learn by pushing ourselves and finding what really lies at the outer reaches of our abilities.

Of course the sad truth is that if we are not present to the moment, our true love could come and go and we wouldn't even notice.

The truth is that throughout my careers in both chess and the martial arts, I often knew that my rivals were more naturally gifted than me - either with their mental machines or their bodies. But I have believed in my training, my approach to learning, and my ability to rise to the challenge under pressure.

My coach and my parents both had this relationship to what I was doing, which was allowing me to express myself with chess. And so I could love it. I had a passion for it. I was expressing myself through chess, and I was learning about myself through chess.