FPL mindset, a thread

FPL, the game we all love, can be extremely frustrating at times. So frustrating it might affect our lives in negative ways.
I come from a background of poker, where the mental part of the game is extremely important. #FPL

I had to work on my mental game in poker, because I had issues with tilt that made me play worse, and not enjoy myself while playing. I see a lot of similarities between what can cause tilt in poker, and what can cause mental agony in FPL and wanted to share my thoughts.

In most things in life we get rewarded for our efforts. If you do your homework, you’ll get better grades. Working out at the gym makes you stronger, etc. When we spend time on FPL by listening to pods, reading twitter, watching match of the day or checking the bookies odds,

we subconsciously expect to be rewarded with green arrows. Just like a poker player expects to win more money, after spending thousands of hours studying the game. The problem is that the variance of poker and FPL is extreme.

A single gameweek, a season of FPL or a poker tournament is not enough for the randomness to even out. But in the long run the great poker players and the great FPL managers always will do well.

So what can we learn from this?

First we must accept that there is a lot of factors within FPL we just can’t control. And that we might not get rewarded with points for the time and effort we put into it. Focus on making good decisions for your team, and try to see past results.

As long as you are happy with your decision before the gw, don’t beat yourself if it don’t turn out as expected. If you keep making good decisions, the points and green arrows will come eventually.

Be humble when you do well, part of it is luck you can’t take credit for.

When you do poorly, don’t forget how enjoyable FPL can be. Log off, recharge, and come back fresh. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!
Make sure you enjoy time spent on FPL. If you don’t enjoy listening to pods, reading articles or reading FPL tweets, then don’t do it!

Hope you found this interesting. Let me know your thoughts about this if you have any. We can’t all have green arrows every GW, but we can all enjoy the great game of FPL and the excellent FPL twitter community! Good luck to you all!

Best regards,
FPL President.