David's Dojo Journey - Installment 13

Choosing Gratitude

It seems to me that one of the most important decisions in life whether I am gong to be thankful for what I have or whether I am going to resent what I don't have. Where I land on that decision will frame every part of my life.

One of the amazing parts of my job as an in-house lawyer at a public company is that I have the great privilege of supporting the C-suite and the company's directors. In other words, people experience success on a level that is hard to fathom. So the question is in my face: do I choose to be thankful for the incredible opportunity to support these incredibly successful people and learn from them, or do I choose to resent the fact that I am not one of them?

I constantly remind myself to choose gratitude and that decision makes all the difference. Resentment and bitterness spread and steal job. Gratitude also spreads and produces joy.

This also applies to chess. Do I choose to be thankful for the abilities and opportunities that I have in chess or do I resent the fact that I'm still at a beginner level after nearly two years of hard work?

I choose to be grateful that I was exposed to this game by a good friend and that I have access to amazing resources like the Chess Dojo and an amazing community that loves the game. And that will make all the difference.

Playing and Analyzing

I am continuing to just play a lot of rapid games and look through the key moments of the game with the computer to learn. I really enjoy the "Learn from your mistakes" option in Lichess, and I typically do that first and them click through the game to see my blunders and try and figure out why they were blunders.

I brought A First Book of Morphy with me on my trip this week, but didn't open it. I'll bring it again with me to London, but I'm not putting any pressure on myself to crack it open. The time away from study has helped me jget rid of the sense of urgency in my study that contributed to my burnout. My internal monologue was always saying - more, more, more. But, why? There is absolutely no rush.

Tactics

This week I do plan on getting back into tactics a bit, but not with Polgar (sorry Dojo:)). My first coach told me to rotate through the following themed puzzles on Lichess (40 puzzles a day, rotating the themes on a daily basis). I might not get to 40, but I am going to start going through the rotation again just to do some tactics.

1st week:
Day 1 - Fork
Day 2 - Pin
Day 3 - Skewer
Day 4 - Hanging Piece
Day 5 - Capture The Defender
Day 6 - Discovered Attack
Day 7 - Trapped Piece
2nd week:
Day 1 - Attraction
Day 2 - Double Check
Day 3 - Clearance
Day 4 - Deflection
Day 5 - Interference
Day 6 - Sacrifice
Day 7 - Advanced Pawn