Don’t Try
“Peace begins when expectations end.”
-Sri Chinmoy
The Classifier stage you so effortlessly practice becomes a nightmare when shot in the match.
Anxiety and fear destroy our body’s ability to execute simple, familiar tasks.
Desire breeds expectations, and from expectations: fear.
Say you hope to shoot to a certain level of competence in your next match. That’s the beginning of the problem.
You might counter with, “If I didn’t want to shoot to my best, then what would motivate me?”
Look at it like this… You know what you are capable of doing. If you don’t try anything—instead of desire and fear driving your actions—you operate matter-of-factly, just doing exactly what needs done in each moment. This is the ultimate.

Fear is imagined failure. Operate in the now—which is all it ever is—and good or bad, failure or success, are no longer your concerns.
Instead of meeting a stage’s challenges with uncertainty, indecision, expectation, and fear—call every shot, and shoot to your ability.
Apply this to living. If you do just what needs done—fully attentive in each moment—you will not waste your energy worrying about what isn’t happening. Now you are truly living.
Plan when it’s necessary and helpful, like packing for a trip, or figuring out the best way to shoot a stage. But beware of attaching to the plan. There are plans, and there are expectations. The latter kills the former.
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Comments are welcome and all questions will be answered.
I’ll post a new topic each Friday afternoon, in one of two categories. One will be on shooting, and the other will be on living. Or: how I learned to live from what I learned by competing.
Thanks for coming in.
Recently shot uspsa nationals and Shannon Smith’s the monster match.
Q. How the hell do you stop thinking while shooting. I had some good runs for a 62 yo senior but then the mind starts talking. How do I shut it off?
Thxs. Craig. Fy71784
You cannot think if you are giving your full attention to the shooting. Upon the firing of EVERY shot, be so focused on the front sight to the point that nothing else in the world exists. Check this post for more details on that::…
https://brianenos.com/the-call-to-shoot-revisited/
Thank you. I look forward to your blog every week. It’s much appreciated.
I appreciate that – thank you.