Josh Waitzkin Quotes & Sayings

When uncomfortable, my instinct is not to avoid the discomfort but to become at peace with it. — Josh Waitzkin

He landed on cheap shot, but I knocked him out of the tournament. — Josh Waitzkin

If I want to be the best, I have to take risks others would avoid, always optimizing the learning potential of the moment and turning adversity to my advantage. That said, there are times when the body needs to heal, but those are ripe opportunities to deepen the mental, technical, internal side of my game. When aiming for the top, your path requires an engaged, searching mind. You have to make obstacles spur you to creative new angles in the learning process. Let setbacks deepen your resolve. You should always come off an injury or a loss better than when you went down. — Josh Waitzkin

At the highest levels of any kind of competitive discipline, everyone is great. At this point the decisive factor is rarely who knows more, but who dictates the tone of the battle. For this reason, almost without exception, champions are specialists whose styles emerge from profound awareness of their unique strengths, and who are exceedingly skilled at guiding the battle in that direction. — Josh Waitzkin

The secret is that everything is always on the line. The more present we are at practice, the more present we will be in competition, in the boardroom, at the exam, the operating table, the big stage. If we have any hope of attaining excellence, let alone of showing what we've got under pressure, we have to be prepared by a lifestyle of reinforcement. Presence must be like breathing. — Josh Waitzkin

So if you think that when you are better, it means that you can smash ahead and mate the guy, you are wrong, that is not what better means. What better means is that your position has the potential, if played correctly, to turn out well. So do not think that when you are better and when you are attacking that you can just force mate. That is not what it is about. Often the way to play best, the way to play within the position, is to maintain it. — Josh Waitzkin

I was unhindered by internal conflict - a state of being that I have come to see as fundamental to the learning process. — Josh Waitzkin

Growth comes at the point of resistance. We learn by pushing ourselves and finding what really lies at the outer reaches of our abilities. — Josh Waitzkin

This might sound like a dream for a seventeen-year-old boy, and I won't deny enjoying the attention, but professionally it was a nightmare. My game began to unravel. I caught myself thinking about how I looked thinking instead of losing myself in thought. The Grandmasters, my elders, were ignored and scowled at me. Some of them treated me like a pariah. I had won eight national championships and had more fans, public support and recognition than I could dream of, but none of this was helping my search for excellence, let alone for happiness. At a young age I came to know that there is something profoundly hollow about the nature of fame. I had spent my life devoted to artistic growth and was used to the sweaty-palmed sense of contentment one gets after many hours of intense reflection. This peaceful feeling had nothing to do with external adulation, and I yearned for a return to that innocent, fertile time. I missed just being a student of the game, — Josh Waitzkin

there are clear distinctions between what it takes to be decent, what it takes to be good, what it takes to be great, and what it takes to be among the best. If your goal is to be mediocre, then you have a considerable margin for error. You can get depressed when fired and mope around waiting for someone to call with a new job offer. If you hurt your toe, you can take six weeks watching television and eating potato chips. — Josh Waitzkin

To walk a thorny road, we may cover its every inch with leather or we can make sandals. Anger. — Josh Waitzkin

we cannot calculate our important contests, adventures, and great loves to the end. The only thing we can really count on is getting surprised. No matter how much preparation we do, in the real tests of our lives, we'll be in unfamiliar terrain. Conditions might not be calm or reasonable. It may feel as though the whole world is stacked against us. This is when we have to perform better than we ever conceived of performing. I believe the key is to have prepared in a manner that allows for inspiration, to have laid the foundation for us to create under the wildest pressures we ever imagined. — Josh Waitzkin

In my experience, successful people shoot for the stars, put their hearts on the line in every battle, and ultimately discover that the lessons learned from the pursuit of excellence mean much more than the immediate trophies and glory. — Josh Waitzkin

The human mind defines things in relation to one another - without light the notion of darkness would be unintelligible — Josh Waitzkin

Everyone at a high level has a huge amount of chess understanding, and much of what separates the great from the very good is deep presence, relaxation of the conscious mind, which allows the unconscious to flow unhindered. — Josh Waitzkin

But as with all skills, the most sophisticated techniques tend to have their foundation in the simplest of principles. As — Josh Waitzkin

The key to pursuing excellence is to embrace an organic, long-term learning process, and not to live in a shell of static, safe mediocrity. Usually, growth comes at the expense of previous comfort or safety. — Josh Waitzkin

In the end, mastery involves discovering the most resonant information and integrating it so deeply and fully it disappears and allows us to fly free. — Josh Waitzkin

I knew how to block out my issues in a sprint, but in marathons I ran out of gas. Consistency became a critical problem. On days that I was inspired, I was unstoppable. But other days I would play bad chess. The time had come for me to learn the science of long-term, healthy, self-sustaining peak performance. — Josh Waitzkin

A key component of high-level learning is cultivating a resilient awareness that is the older, conscious embodiment of a child's playful obliviousness. — Josh Waitzkin

Of course there were plateaus, periods when my results leveled off while I internalized the information necessary for my next growth spurt, but I didn't mind. — Josh Waitzkin

Each loss was a lesson, each win a thrill. Every day pieces of the puzzle fell together. Whenever — Josh Waitzkin

One of the most critical strengths of a superior competitor in any discipline - whether we are speaking about sports, business negotiations, or even presidential debates - is the ability to dictate the tone of the battle. — Josh Waitzkin

One idea I taught was the importance of regaining presence and clarity of mind after making a serious error. — Josh Waitzkin

In chess you might find a good move. Then you might find a better move. But take your time. Find the best move. — Josh Waitzkin

The learning principle is to plunge into the detailed mystery of the micro in order to understand what makes the macro tick. Our obstacle is that we live in an attention-deficit culture. — Josh Waitzkin