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Approach the finale with gusto!

Starting the game moderately and finishing it with a big bang reduces the pressure in the next tournament.

Finals in any game are unnerving. Why not? You imagine your future with its outcome. A win will make you a hero, and losing will put you to dust! At least, so you think!

Self-patting cajoles your ego. It becomes a hard-to-break habit. Winning provides an assertion about the quality of your effort. That you did it very well, perhaps better than someone. 

It is always good to understand the quality of your effort. But an assertion about it? It needs to be more accurate on many fronts. Yet, it is often a judgemental view of the efforts you logged. 

Assertions cause us to oscillate between two extreme ends of reactions on our effort. It can be a double-edged sword that bites you when you don't deliver the goods. It can then drain your confidence and drop energy to a low point.

Your own feedback to yourself, on the other hand, provides a realistic view of strengths gained or weaknesses discovered and hence to be averted the next time you play the game. It is bound to improve you no matter the outcome you get this time.

Feedback prepares us to respond. You are better off mounting a measured fightback for the adverse outcomes you got than reacting with knee-jerk action when the result is undesirable.

Sometimes, it's best to look at effort on a continuum rather than based on the end results you got.

Playing out the hard balls with respect while keeping an honest effort to keep the board ticking opens up the possibility of tackling the most difficult. 

Approach the finale with gusto! Even though the results will have two sides to the coin, you have nothing but to gain from experience. 

Engage in your own game.

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