Many people find that although they feel ‘okay’ their life lacks focus, or they struggle to progress towards succeeding in their goals. Perhaps you can not put your finger on what is wrong, only that things are not right, or not right enough. The question I have for you today is not about whether you have any catastrophic urgency currently imposing itself on your day to day, but almost the opposite. Are you on subtle tilt?
In poker, “tilt” refers to the loss of control of ones emotional faculty, usually as a result losing in situation(s) where you were an overwhelming favorite statistically, or sometimes from chat ‘flaming’. The subsequently impaired decision making process almost invariably results in a losing streak. The loses may catastrophic or my cease when the player regains self-control and with it skillful decision making.
In the context of daily life, I am using the term subtle tilt to highlight a common and unnoticed problem. The background nagging and tugging on your mental and emotional presence, detracts just a bit from your focus on life that is actually happening. This small difference makes all the difference, though. In order to be truly mindful and present, interacting with the world skillfully and efficiently, while developing and executing elements of our goals, the loss of a slice of our ‘nowness’ can easily downgrade us from excellence to mediocrity.
Those awareness bandits that tug at us and dull the edges of our minds, latching on cares and troubles and background noise, are never useful for functioning in the moment or achieving goals in the future.
Too often, we think something major is missing, and hope something profoundly better is about to develop, but we can not put our finger on the resistance, on what is holding us back. Maybe what is wrong does a lot of damage but does not require radical intervention to fix.
Ask yourself if all along you have been on subtle tilt.
Build well,
CRC
