Two More Good Ones

More poker/life metaphor quality from Pauly:

Poker is a way to figure out your limitations and how you react in certain situations or during pressure points as DoubleAs has often discussed. But being honest with yourself is something that is very hard to do. No matter if it's poker or in your normal everyday life, the more you lie to yourself, the more it's going to hurt you and your loved ones in the future. If you are blinded with fame and glory at the poker tables and you're not 100% honest with yourself that you need several more years of training before you take the shot, then you're going to fall hard. And you might be indirectly taking people in your life down with you.

The first step is being honest with yourself. Then and only then can you begin the journey to figure out who you really are. Despite all your faults, it doesn't make you a horrible person. Nobody is perfect (well except Phil Hellmuth). And being able to identify your weaknesses allows you to point out your strengths. And that's what you need to focus most of your energy on... what you do best. Then you can take the time to improve those aspects of your life that are liabilities. The two pronged approach is a way to flourish and improve at the same time.

...and some back-to-basics insight from DoubleAs:

It takes a lot of time to master the subtleties of fancy plays so that they're profitable. You have to know the right situations to use them: the right position, opponents, stack sizes, table image, etc. .

I think most players often just go back to solid play after a FPS tangent. The player is now knowledgeable in the more advanced techniques and can actually use them correctly now. The big realization is that the fancy plays need the right circumstances and that those circumstances rarely present themselves.