10 things to know about TILT (for esports gaming players)
1. The word TILT comes from when we used to get angry & physically move the pinball machine so much & so hard, that it's internal mechanism declared a loss by shutting down the machine saying "TILT".
2. Similarly, nowadays we say tilted to describe that we got angry/frustrated in/about a game, which messes with our balance as we lean more into anger/frustration.
3. We tilt because something triggered us, which made us feel a lack of control, which gets us out of the flow of our natural game & makes us react from imbalance. That anger is based in fear.
4. Fear of losing, of not looking good, other's/self judgment, your time being wasted, etc. That fear triggers our fight/flight/freeze response - which is our survival response to threats. We feel uncomfortable, so we act to regain a sense of control.
5. Fight response is a need to react aggressively: argue, get angry or competitive. We just go harder. Can take unnecessary risks, get egoic, act erratically & go off on a tantrum. Trying to over compensate. Tilt.
6. When we take a breath & allow ourselves to be Comfortable with being Uncomfortable, Tilt won't pop us as much, easing our sense of control. Tilt actually leads to us directly losing more control, by spinning out.
7. Overcoming Tilt, or Fight response, takes emotionally releasing anger in safe constructive ways & them mentally 1) Gaining awareness of it 2) Seeing how it's killing your game 3) A shift of focus.
8. Once we release it's intensity, we can relax into it when it comes up & choose not to respond in that same way. We put all of that spent energy on the new focus.
9. Losing control = losing in-game. The way to regain control is only on the 1 thing you can actually control - YOU. Your thoughts, your emotions. Shifting reactions --> into responses.
10. Feel the mistake, or source of the trigger, choose to learn from it rather than resent that it happened - which is the only thing you CAN do, because it has ALREADY happened. You cannot change the past, you might as well make a better future:)