The Will to Keep Winning

by Daigo Umehara

My greatest strength is my willingness to take up a challenge when there's something that I want, work hard at it, and see it through to the end. I address my weaknesses head-on and boldly choose the path less taken. It is precisely this attitude that allows me to be happy with myself now. Standing up to challenges may mean little to those who have never really struggled in life, but for someone like me with so many demons from my childhood, the will to challenge adversity is invaluable.

Over the course of shadowing better players, you fashion their technique into your own.

As someone who grew up without any real aspirations in the normal sense, I think that regardless of your process in choosing your life goals, what's important is to put all your energy into what's right in front of you.

Do what you can with what you have.

I was only after the prize, so I was playing not to lose. I was furthermore mentally drained, inhibiting instinctual play─when opponents came at me with everything, I wasn't confident enough to react appropriately. Pride in your efforts rewards you with confidence to match. As I found out, however, focusing on the prize lowers your drive for the game. Lesson learned: don't misjudge your goals.

When you're playing not to lose--ie. With your eyes fixed only on the Short Term goal of the prize --you wont be able to perform appropriately as you should if you had a greater Why. Chase your Why, not your What.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with winning a tournament or achieving a certain result as an objective. Objectives can be a good short-term motivation that draws out your potential. Get overly obsessed with that objective and let it become your goal, however, and you'll stop producing and lose the will to continue.

Your Why cannot become your What.

My advice for our theoretical band would be that if they really love music, they should focus on creating the best music they can. No bad can come of that.

Your goal should be something that is deterministic and be a result of yourself. Having goals that you can't control will make you suffer in anguish. Simply unsustainable in the long run due to inevitable loss of momentum--because there are some things that you simply cannot control.

Ask yourself why you want your goal. Constantly reaffirm your resolve. Whether it be musician, actor, pro ball player, or anything, sit down and ask yourself─is that what you really want? Is your desire enduring?

Constantly interrogate your Why and steel your resolve through it.

If you aim for big changes and improvements and somehow miss your mark, your motivation will nosedive.

When you aim big and give yourself too much pressure, and miss, you'll lose momentum easily and quickly.

Personally, I always remind myself that both my opponent and I are human; nothing is special about either of us. My victories are due to a conventional combination of knowledge, technical accuracy, experience, and practice, not because I overwhelmed my opponent with my greatness. Win or lose, one of us did what needed to be done, and as a result beat the other. Never forget that in any contest, one side continued to do a perfectly normal thing, and as a result was able to win this one time.

Remind yourself the only difference

How we react when we fail to attain a desired result greatly impacts the direction we take from that point forward. Some will make excuses─attributing a loss to bad luck, blaming the game itself, declaring that an opponent is just too strong, obsessing over getting older… Don't get caught up in your emotions, just consider the facts and analyze them.

How we react when we lose matters as it will dictate our mentality moving forward, which in turns determine our motivation.

Today, however, I've attained an unwavering confidence and never back down from an opponent. What sets my attitude and resolve apart from those who have just gone with the flow and piled up win upon win is this: for each of my countless mistakes and failures, I've sat down and thought intently about why I lost.

When you lose, instead of expending mental effort into feeling upset. Use them to analyse your weaknesses and why you lost.

Over the course of a long day playing countless games, sometimes I'll think to myself that maybe I'm wasting my time playing boring matches against obviously weaker players, or that I don't have to analyze the outcome. Yet anytime I give in to these lazy impulses, it always backfires.

Typically we place the people immediately in front of us in our crosshairs. But what happens when we are at the very front with no one in front of us to chase? We then lose sight and underestimate people behind us, though they are catching up exponentially than you are growing.

The American inventor Thomas Edison, responsible for upward of thirteen hundred inventions in his lifetime, said that those who fail to succeed are those who fail to think.

If one change doesn't work out, just make another. If you realize what went wrong and fix it, you will always wind up better off than before. The experience might even suggest a way to take two steps forward. Keep changing and eventually you'll find the right way. If you ever take a wrong step, you'll know that the right way is in a different direction.

A mistake made is a lesson learnt--forever yours to hold.

Some people might tell you there's an easier way. While they might mean well, the truth is that there are no shortcuts. If you want to be physically stronger, you need to hit the gym. If you want to lose weight, you need to eat less and exercise more. If you want to be better than others, you need to practice more than they do. Even your mindset and confidence require training to improve. It's not easy, but it's the only way.

There are no shortcuts to anything worthy

The path to achieving levels beyond ten is harder to discern. It lies in uncharted territory where you can't even be sure if there's a way forward or not. There's no guarantee that it leads to eleven and beyond. The path may be dark, but there is definitely a way before you. You can't press forward without the conviction to trust your instincts. While no one has traversed your path, if you stick to it, you should be able to go further than the others. If your goal is to be stronger than the rest, your only recourse is to believe in yourself and press on. Lose out to your insecurities, and you will go astray.

Here's why Pareto Principle of 20-80 happens: There are the Colombuses out there who dare greatly and tread uncharted waters. Then, there are people like you who--with little (20%) effort--achieve the 80% of what they done simply by following closely behind them. It is not easy to be a Columbus with dark, unlit and untrodden path in front of you; it's so easy to lay back and just reap off some other Colombus' efforts and it's even easier now that the internet offers information so freely and easily--we are now easily tempted to do so because the 80% gain is simply right in front of us! But no! Columbuses are important because they are the people who continue pushing the status quo, the people who keep pushing the limits and boundaries!

However, I don't play games for fun or even because I want to win; I'm thinking of things on another level. In the end, the games are just games. My true objective is self-development. That is what motivates me.

I've frequently been asked when I hit my peak. My response is always“Right now.”Right now, I am stronger than I've ever been. Otherwise, I wouldn't deserve being called a professional. If I can't become stronger tomorrow than I am today, I don't see the point in even trying. If I'm not continuously growing, I might as well stop competing altogether.

Grinding in the arcades and always producing results fuels my pride, and continuously one-upping myself gives me confidence.

Grinding and putting in the work, and seeing the results provide sustaining confidence.

Don't reject new things; accept the lessons they present at face value. It's easy to forget this as we gain more experience and attain a certain position with age. The older and more experienced you get, the more your experience shapes your thoughts. You get caught up in the past and fixed in your ways, unable to shake preconceptions. You start to consider certain things as impossible.

Preconceptions with experience. The need to remain humble and always receptive of new things.

I've made countless errors in the past. Having climbed almost every step on the staircase of gaming, I've made plenty of missteps that led me away from success. Anytime you notice a misstep, however, just backtrack a step or two and climb in a different direction. The worst thing you can do is stand still, overanalyzing which way to proceed instead of picking a direction and heading that way. You'll advance far more quickly by just climbing, even toward another mistake. Missteps are neither bad, nor are they wasted effort. Whether the right step or not, climbing produces a result. Even missteps are gained experience, which will make the climb a bit easier moving forward.

No misstep is wasted and just keep climbing.

If I'm going to die someday anyway, I want it to be on the battlefield. I'm not the type to take my last breath quietly, holed up in my castle. Just as these warlord generals defied death, I too continue to fight on the front lines of gaming today.

"If I'm going to die someday..." Keep the image of you constantly moving towards death crystal clear in your mind. We are slowly withering without our knowing--each and every day that you let by is forever lost.