Hilary Swank puts her breathtaking performance in Million Dollar Baby down to way Clint Eastwood was able to get her to relax and stop her interfering with her natural ability to create such an awesome character.

What about you? How do you interfere with your natural ability. How do you stop yourself from progressing? What do you say to yourself that ensures you stay within a safe arena? In Hilary Swank’s words what is your “obstacle” to success in your life.

For most of us our obstacle is same as Hilary Swank’s. It is our mind. The way we were raised. The area we lived in. The schools we went to. The education we received or not as case may be. The first jobs we had. The people we idolised in our youth and in later life. All give us a way of being.

Think for a moment. What do you now do that can be traced back to your past. Have you ever said anything and a sibling or member of your family immediately responded “You sound just like……….”? If you have then you have just met an “obstacle” That thought was not a new thought. It is not even one of your thoughts. It is a response to a stimulus. It is a learned behaviour. A behaviour that isn’t yours it is someone else’s and you copied it. It is well and truly an “obstacle”

This is a small example but one that can be identified quickly. How many, other hidden behaviours do you have that are a carbon copy of someone else. All these “obstacles” ensure that you are ‘kept in your place’.

Poker is great to watch on TV, it is about psychology and people more than it’s about cards and so it attracts a large percentage of non-players. People love watching other people in real situations and poker is latest reality TV craze.

The apparent simplicity of Texas Holdem draws TV audience and holds them, like all great games and sports it is incredibly simple to understand but extremely difficult to master. Everyone from teenagers to grannies can work out basics – three of something beats two of them! It’s only a short step to fill in other hands on ranking table.

TV Texas Holdem also has a very powerful addictiveness about it. Very quickly you will start to like some players more than others, in some cases people will become fans of certain players and follow their progress. If you start watching early on in a tournament, poker has ability to hold attention in such a way that you need to stick with it until end to see who wins.

OK you’re asking, but how will that make me wealthy?

Well, remember all of these non-players who start watching poker on TV and get hooked by it’s sheer entertainment value? Very soon some of them will be saying four little magic words to themselves, four words that will make you money.

“I can do that!”