The best don’t react. They pause.
That’s what separates the top 1% — in poker, sports, and life — from everyone else who crashes under pressure.
Not because they’re lucky.
Not even because they’re the most skilled.
But because they’ve learned how to slow the roll… to slow the moment down when everything screams go faster.
The power of the pause surfaces all the time in poker.
Sit With Ego As One
“Our soul speaks when we remain in the stillness, allowing our ego to sit with us as one.” ~ Donna Blevins
That came to me while I was sitting quietly on Zoom with a private client after she busted out of a tournament.
She asked if she could leave the lights off in her hotel room. “Of course,” I said. With the curtains open, the soft flicker of Las Vegas signs gave us plenty of light.
We sat in silence for a while. Then she admitted it — it was her ego that made the move. She played those cards without pausing. She wasn’t angry, just quietly sad.
What happened next felt surreal.
She turned her head, not toward me, but as if addressing someone — or something — beside her. First, to the center, she said calmly, “I can do this.”
Then she turned to her left. “Next time, child having a temper tantrum, you can go to that corner,” she said, gesturing with her left hand.
Then to her right. “Ego. You can permanently stay in that corner,” she said, pointing firmly to the right side of the room.
I swear I saw her energetic beings seated beside her. Maybe it was my imagination. But we’ve been connected for more than fifteen years, and I felt it — deeply. She didn’t push her ego away.
She was sitting with ego. As one.
She didn’t need advice. She didn’t need fixing. She needed a safe space to feel it.
And in that quiet, she found her center again — not by silencing ego, but by giving it a seat without the steering wheel.
That’s the real practice. I think of it as lassoing ego with grace. And I'm perfectly okay sending it to the corner.
Not banishing ego, but recognizing its voice — then choosing presence anyway.
Poker trains us for that. So does life.
And the pause?
That’s where we catch it. The ego. In that single breath before habit hijacks the moment.
Where Most Games Are Lost
Teams often lose before they hit the field. Athletes drop the ball before the game begins.
Why? Because no one ever taught them how to pause when it mattered most.
They ignore or disregard their inner game — because it was never part of the playbook.
Performance is beyond physical. It’s internal. It's mental. Emotional. And spiritual.
Balancing the mind-body-spirit connection is pivotal in winning more often.
Even Harvard PhD Maria Konnikova — who trained with poker legend Erik Seidel and went from novice to poker pro — said the real reason she wished she’d found poker sooner:
Poker taught her how to pay attention. Poker showed her the cost of distraction and the gift of presence.
That’s what stayed with her. That's what she brought out in her best-selling book, The Biggest Bluff.
And for me? One of the beauties of poker is that it makes the importance of the pause visible. That's priceless.
Without the pause, what do we have left in life?
Where the Wisdom Waits
You don’t always need better cards — though it sure feels better when you get them.
But we do need longer pauses.
So much of winning — in poker, in business, in relationships — comes down to what you don’t do.
What you don’t react to. What you don’t override. What you allow to rise instead.
Stillness isn’t surrender. It’s a strategy.
And it’s always there — waiting — when you slow down enough to hear the whisper beneath the noise.
That’s where I found it:
“The kind that delivers a lifetime of wisdom in one breath.” ~ Donna Blevins
Yours might sound different. But you won’t find it — you won’t hear it — until you pause long enough to listen.
📌 One last point. This isn’t just poker talk. This is life talk. If your ego’s been driving and your soul’s stuck in the back seat, maybe it’s time to pause. Sit beside yourself. Listen. Your next winning move might be one breath away.
In this moment, take a long, deep breath and hear me.
I love you just the way you are — even when we disagree.
Breathe that in, and in this moment, now…
Consider yourself hugged,
I'm Donna Blevins
The MindShift Mechanic
And the one who’ll remind you that — the pause is the power.
Please comment and tell me how this benefits you.
Until next time.
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