Apples

All season I have been banging on about ignoring your emotions, being objective, making sound rational decisions, trusting the process, so how did I arrive at 5 assets that blank next game week (GW36) and ‘wasting’ a transfer on a sideways move where I ditch the highest owned player in the game ?

The power of enlightenment. Attaining a state of intuition.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma—which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition

Steve Jobs

When people reflect on what it takes to be mentally fit, the first idea that comes to mind is usually intelligence. The smarter you are, the more complex the problems you can solve — and the faster you can solve them. Intelligence is traditionally viewed as the ability to think and learn. Yet in a turbulent world, there’s another set of cognitive skills that might matter more: the ability to rethink and unlearn.

I ended last week’s blog pondering the thought that there has got to be more to (FPL) life than this, more than watching matches, pouring over data, consuming other people’s content and then not selecting the perfect 11 every game week.

Reflecting on all the things I’ve done this season, exercising my mind has been the most rewarding.

I have benefitted from making time to think, learning to think and strangely enough the incredible power of reframing; thinking about things from a differing stance.

So this week’s blog revolves around the most enigmatic organ of the body, the brain.

the biggest mistakes I make are not usually because I make the wrong decision between two viable alternatives but rather because I do not even recognise that an alternative exists to consider

Way back in August when I set out my aims, everything was driven by my goal of achieving the best rank possible – I see mini leagues and cup competitions as distractions. I was intent on strengthening my cognitive abilities such as memory, focus and reasoning, in essence being more like a very good CPU.

Our kryptonite when processing information, is that our thinking is subject to emotions, to bias and flaws, our genetic makeup determines behaviours, how we interact and respond.

An example of this, is our innate deep seated need to see patterns. When we try to interpret an event by simply squeezing it into an old pattern, we are likely to miss what makes it different—and take the wrong action.

The human mind itself, perhaps the greatest creation of all. We don’t know how it works; we just know that it works extraordinarily well.

This season we have all battled to decipher complex challenges rationally, digesting the data, buffering against the chaos even when that data was incomplete and the chaos torturous. We all have a super power to fall back on, we just need to relax, close our eyes, and let the magic happen – our subconscious mind will automatically deliver the right answer.

INTUITIVE understandable without the use of instructions

Being intuitive is to make a leap of faith, being able to unlearn and rethink, going beyond gut instinct and common sense, being more than intelligent and rational.

Believe in the transformative power, rise above the number crunching, the unwritten rules, the nay sayers, feel special, trust in your own self. Any idiot can run the numbers, but the gift of a good intuition — that’s reserved for the true FPL elite (and the occasional rocket girl).

Intuition does have a place in decision making—you should not ignore your instincts any more than you should ignore your conscience. It might well be an imperfect processor, but for me the the joy in playing FPL is the adventure of indulging one’s intuition.

But instinct is something which transcends knowledge. We have, undoubtedly, certain finer fibers that enable us to perceive truths when logical deduction, or any other willful effort of the brain, is futile.

Nikola Tesla

So, GW34 I got an insignificant small red arrow, the postponement of the Man Utd v Liverpool game meant I ended up fielding 9 players, current OR 117k. Poised. Luckily still having my Free Hit means I can hold my prize assets from Chelsea, Leicester and Man Utd. I took a -4 to make a sideways move, Bruno to Greenwood, so I could captain him for the triple game week, what ? Surely this goes against everything you have learnt this season ?

I just had a feeling

IN CONCLUSION

I would like my epitaph for this season to read : intellectually curious, rigorous in her pursuit of knowledge, and willing to challenge her own assumptions.

Sensible and respectable, suitable for a content provider.

But in private my soul sings : she flew on her intuition.

POSTCRIPT

My partner once came home from work with a box. ‘Do you want a laptop ? No one wanted it at the office. It’s not what we use.’ I was left alone with a brand new MacBook Pro, and no manual. Once I had found the ON button the rest was easy, pure intuition. Last week I updated to a MacBook Air with the new M1 processor, it is so quick and powerful. The inspiration for this blog is processing, when you have a strong mind and up to date information, you can interpret and reach conclusions about phenomena without resorting to conscious thought – the more research I do, the better my intuition works.

My method is different. I do not rush into actual work. When I get an idea I start at once building it up in my imagination. I change the construction, make improvements, and operate the device entirely in my mind.

Nikola Tesla, My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla

3 ways to listen to that internal voice

• start a diary or journal, open up the non conscious mind by writing down thoughts, feelings, emotions
• let it flow without prejudice or criticism, be less rational
• put yourself in the zone, create an atmosphere conducive to exploring your thoughts

The graveyard is the richest place on earth, because it is here that you will find all the hopes and dreams that were never fulfilled, the books that were never written, the songs that were never sung, the inventions that were never shared, the cures that were never discovered, all because someone was too afraid to take that first step, keep with the problem, or determined to carry out their dream.

Les Brown