a LONG and honest read in developing

better mental fortitude

Please note that this will not contain everything in detail for the sake
of simplicity and ease of understanding, but if this gains positive
feedback, I would love to add/do more. This will also be a bit long,
so please bear with me.

I will quickly begin with myself: for those who don't know me, I'm
Jasper and go by JSP. I am not a licensed sports psychologist, I do
not have years on years of experience nor any experience at
competing at the HIGHEST level for that matter. I am 20 years old
and am speaking out of my personal experience in developing a
fortified mindset for success. I myself, still have much more to learn,
and I'm not always gonna be "right," but in my opinion, it's not
always about "right" or "wrong," but about the fact that "it can always
be better." With that being said, take everything I say with a grain of
salt, and whether you allow this to help you, is ultimately up to you.
Everyone goes through different stuff, everyone thinks differently.
But if you can take even 1% away from what I have to say, I'm sure
it will make an impact. Nonetheless, please take the time to
genuinely read and process everything that is said. Just like how
you hear everything, it is important to actually LISTEN.

I've been meaning to make a thread, document, or twitlonger, in

regards to sport psychology and overall mental health, however, felt
the need to delay it until I gained a bigger platform for the sake of
reach, credibility, and more. Nonetheless, many recent events have
pushed me to get this out: witnessing players lose motivation & step
back, players speaking negatively about themselves, and biggest of
all, Android talking on stream about his recent benching on NRG
and the overall necessity for proper aid in sports psychology. As he
mentioned, even players like gla1ve highlight the importance of
sports psychology in Astralis’ path to winning consecutive majors.
Sports psychology and overall mental health aid is especially crucial
with the audience VALORANT attracts and the overflowing amount
of young adults that COULD flourish if provided with the right help
moving forward. So big shoutout to @ANDROIDfps because even in
the midst of the negative, you inspired me to push this out, so at
least there's positive in that.

Roadmap: Perspectives --> Appreciation --> Hunger --> Humility

1. Perspectives
First are foremost, this all begins with the simple understanding that
your brain is a computer. Anything you input directly changes the
programming in your brain which can AND WILL affect the outputs
in your day-to-day life. With this understanding, we now must begin
to feed our mind with the right "nutrients" to flourish. The end goal is
to adopt a "generally" optimistic mindset and outlook. The way I do
so, is by method of LOGIC. Which happens to work perfectly, with
the mind of a computer.
Be logical and rational in your thinking, and try to understand/view
every problem, situation, or thing, by every perspective. By viewing
from the majority of perspectives, you gain the majority of
knowledge, and thus the majority of the answers required to tackle
said problem, situation, or thing. In every problem or scenario, there
will be both negatives and positives. Even in the most negative
situations, realize the positives in the sense that you learn, grow,
and improve from the experience you gain from said negative
situation(s). Even your negative childhood experiences, or negative
relationships, they've all had positives in your life whether or not
you've chosen to realize it. All those experiences are unique to you
and should be embraced, because they make you who you are
today, and you've learned and grown from having had those
experiences. Everything I've said up until this point should be
making sense. And that ability to make sense in your head SHOULD
be mind-blowing. If these things can make so much sense in our
head, why don't we push ourselves to think this way? If thinking
optimistically can truly make our lives better and it makes so much
sense to do so, or even, if it makes so much sense to NOT BE
NEGATIVE, WHY NOT try to be positive? And so by logic, it makes
so much sense to not be any other way, but to push ourselves to
become the most positive and best versions of ourselves that we
can be.
With all that being said, it is okay to be negative, hence the
"generally" positive mindset. It is important to realize negativity but
even more important to embrace it. As wise Coach
@MattCurrieFPS said, "Success starts with failure. Fail forward."
Understand and embrace those negative moments, but realize the
growth that will occur because of your unique experiences in life, in
your career, and much more. It's not about being knocked down, it's
about whether or not you're willing to get up. Nothing feels better
than feeling motivated and hungry after failing, and feeling ready to
prove everyone wrong and show them your growth. You messed up
in a day of scrims? Work hard and come back tomorrow with
improvements; better planning, better comms, better energy, better
focus. You played poorly in a match? Beat yourself up about it
AFTER the match, for a maximum of 30 minutes, or sleep on it if you
have to. But when the next day hits, it’s a new day and work hard to
make sure whatever happened yesterday, doesn’t happen again.
You won’t disappoint yourself like that again. But remember, talk is
talk, at the end of the day, actions speak louder than words. We, as
humans, seek results and actions. To see is to believe. But it really
all does begin with some words in your mind. Seek improvement
and look for that 1%. If you’re improving 1% a day, you’re taking a
step forward, and that is the right step. Keep on seeking that 1%,
and those 1%'s will add up. Then one day, you WILL find yourself
where you aimed to be.
Yet to make things even more interesting, it is then another step to
realize when to be ILLOGICAL. Because to strive for greater than
greatness, sometimes you need to take the risks, no matter how
illogical it may seem. Believe in your ability to succeed and
understand that despite the immensely high risks, the rewards are
so worth it, and that you mind as well put nothing but your all and try
(Watch Elon Musk video linked down below for more).
Fun fact: even now, I'm a bit nervous to put this out because I'm
scared it won't turn out positively. but even then, I know that if I can
make an impact on even ONE person's life, I'm happy and grateful.
it's all about 1% - Currie :D

2. Appreciation
"Learn to separate your work life from your personal life"
unFORTUNATELY, the two have a causal relationship. Changes in
one, will have a direct impact on the other. But if this is viewed with
the right PERSPECTIVE, it can be a wonderful source of motivation
and drive for success.
Yes, we are gamers. Gamers are often stereotyped as losers, nerds
who stay at home all day to play video games. Sure some of that
could be true, sure you could let some of that get to your head, but it
is a blessing in itself that we have the opportunity to literally SIT AT
HOME, and PLAY VIDEO GAMES. Whether you do it at a
professional level, or a casual level, you have a roof over your head,
food on the table, and a way to play VIDEO GAMES. No matter how
much negativity is going on in your life, it is important to stand back
and take a look at the bigger picture. Yes it's hard to work every day,
go to school, have debt, make just enough to eat and barely pay
rent, and stay up late at night to grind esports. But it's a privilege. It's
an opportunity that YOU get to have. You GET to go to school and
learn, YOU GET to work to make money, YOU GET to eat and have
a roof over your head. YOU GET to stay up and grind esports.
BECAUSE you're WORKING for it. Appreciate that you are standing,
breathing, and have the ability to LOOK FORWARD to the next day.
Appreciate that you can even access the internet to read this
twitlonger. There is so much more to life that we haven't even yet
experienced or seen, and that in itself is so inspiring to wake up to
every morning. It drives me personally to keep pushing and grinding
so hard every day so that I can one day see more of what the world
has to offer. Life comes bearing fruits, and whether or not we want
to harvest, is up to us. So try and come to appreciate YOUR life, and
embrace the experiences that you've had, no matter how negative
they are, and understand that ALL those experiences, have molded
you to become the person you are today. And everything that you
start doing from this point forward, will mold you into the person you
will become, so at least try to become the person you want to be.
In example, I’ve been grateful and appreciative throughout every
second that I’ve had COVID. Yeah it sucks and I’ve said it blows, but
I understand that I could’ve had it way worse, that there are people
out there who DO have it way worse. I’m so grateful that I had 3
shots cause these shots definitely helped suppress the symptoms.
I’m so appreciative of that and I was ready to jump into scrims and
ready to push by all means (although health is ultimately most
important, but I was in alright enough condition to play). So hopefully
my hunger can inspire you to keep the foot on the gas pedal too and
just keep trekking cause you’re almost there. And remember, it’s
okay to complain and be frustrated, but at least most nights, sleep
appreciatively.

3. Hunger
- There are those who strive to be good. (i.e. usually tier 2 players)
- There are those who strive to be better than good, yet don't have
the internal willpower to be anything greater than good. (i.e. your
average tier 1 player)
- Then, there are those who strive to be greater than greatness
itself. (i.e. Michael Jordan, Kobe, Kanye, Yay, Vanity)
The next step in success, is the drive. And all the prior topics,
directly relate to the level of your hunger. To achieve your true
desire for success, you must believe in your ability to reach such
heights. For you, will only achieve as much as you believe you can
achieve.
Appreciate everything you have and everything up until this point in
your life, and create a sense of purpose. An understanding that you
aren't competing because you lucked out, because you were told to,
but because you've worked your ass off for it. YOU are the reason
you are where you are and you deserve every bit of it. Every day,
visualize the game, whenever you have time to think, think about the
game. There is no work life and personal life, it's just LIFE. If you
truly want to reach the cream of the crop, you'll treat VALORANT as
your centrepiece. Marry the game. Before your matches, scrims,
ranked games, listen to hype music, embody the energy. Believe in
yourself and understand that you aren't here by chance, but here by
choice. Someone else might be more “talented” than you, so what?
Outwork them. Work harder and smarter, be efficient with your time,
and have an absolute will to improve. Recognize your efforts and
abilities, but more importantly, be honest with yourself. Understand
that you aren't gonna be the best right away, you're not the best
right now, but the fact that you can still improve and work to become
the best, is inspiring and motivating, and in itself, absolutely
AMAZING to look forward to. Knowing that one day in the future,
there's gonna be a better version of you, and you just gotta stick
around for the ride to see it and experience it.
But remember, there are ALWAYS gonna be rough patches. Bumps
along the way. But once you've crossed the mountain, it's just hills
onward. Once you can get past the initial hurdles, everything will
become so much easier. Develop the "generally" positive mindset,
use that to appreciate and be grateful for everything that you have,
and use all that to understand that when the hurdles come, to be
excited, because every single one of those hurdles are there to
catapult you forward and make tomorrow's you, an even better
version of yourself. You're gonna get declined from offers, you're
gonna get dropped from teams, you're gonna feel like you're the
worst. But once again, it's not about getting knocked down, it's about
whether or not you're willing to get up. My aunt always said, "You
need to struggle today, to live a better tomorrow." Put in the effort
now, and reap the rewards later.
In spite of that, it’s okay to take breaks. Take a day of the week to
relax and take a reality check on the progress you’ve made and the
journey yet to complete. You can see the weeks of work as stress or
exciting time to be spent improving yourself and working on
becoming the best player you can be. There should be joy in
pursuing your passion and you should seek it at your own pace to
truly enjoy it. If you do, you’ll find yourself playing ranked, aim-
training, watching the game, because you WANT TO. There is even
productivity in taking breaks, because the name of the game is
efficiency, not volume. Sleep knowing the hunger you have and be
ready to work hard when hard work is needed.

4. Humility
Arguably the most important topic as the cherry on top, is humility.
No matter how great you become, you will only get so far without a
positive attitude. Learn to be humble and understand that the world
only knows the side of you that you choose to share.
Learn to keep your confidence and ego within you, use it internally
to fuel you, but remain humble, kind, and modest on the outside.
Remember that you are where you are today because of how the
people in your life have shaped you and that you once too, were in
"their" shoes. You weren't always as fortunate, as positive, or as
mentally strong. Use your experiences to shape others and help the
people around you grow. By being in somebody's life, you have a
direct impact on it. So try to invoke positivity and positive change in
the world, no matter how little. Be blunt and honest with your
teammates. Tell them what needs to be heard. Push them to
become the best versions of themselves they can be so that you can
succeed as a team and as friends. VALORANT requires more than
5 brains, it requires 5 brains that are actively involved; so push each
other to the limits and keep each other humble, yet feed off the fire
from one another. We are the foundation of the future. "The future of
eSports relies on the future pros" - Currie. We might be a tiny speck
in the great big universe, but the future we build, has an impact on
BILLIONS, and that alone seems pretty grand in the midst of things.
So invoke positivity, and try to help change the world for the better,
even if it's just a little.

Conclusively, it really does all start with PERSPECTIVES. Develop

the ability to seek out perspectives, and you will truly view the world
in a completely different light. Embrace the interactions you have
with people in your day-to-day life, for every person brings a
different perspective. Soak up all the knowledge you can, because
knowledge truly is power.
With that being said, please feel free to comment, start a thread, and
let's spread more knowledge and perpsectives. Hit me with critcism
and the feedback I/others need to hear to keep on improving. Thank
you for taking the time to read, see y'all at the top.

Great resources to learn more and push you further in becoming the
person you seek to be:
- Helps you take in PERSPECTIVES and better understanding of
the power of your brain https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=v1ojZKWfShQ&ab_channel=TEDxTalks
- Sports psychology and a very brief perspective on the mind of a
winner
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=yG7v4y_xwzQ&ab_channel=TEDxTalks
- Compilation of Joe Rogan absolutely PREACHING
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=CM_LWxh33Z8&ab_channel=MindsetMentor
- The King of Failure - Elon Musk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=k9zTr2MAFRg&ab_channel=ChispaMotivation
- Great motivational video and embodies “hunger”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=_KmsNRHVudk&ab_channel=BenLionelScott
- Winners v. Losers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=E5XvUOxL6VQ&ab_channel=BenLionelScott
- Phenomenal document on the mental game in eSports by
@MattCurrieFPS
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1x6yUceC6PCFlSblsj11pf0AFh
YD7_ZPuFlAL0PoNOS4/edit?usp=sharing

TLDR: There is no TLDR, if you need one or want one, you probably
don't care enough to take any of this in. But hopefully you do. Only 1
person might read this whole thing tbh, but if it can help even that 1
person, I'm eternally grateful that I put this out there :D