i've noticed a lot of new SF6 players hitting the end of the honeymoon phase lately, dooming about mental stack and ranked and whatever, so it's a good time to bump this essay from earlier on finding healthy, sustainable ways to motivate yourself.
cultivating a healthy mindset about skill growth and competition requires you to do the emotional management yourself. the video game is not going to do it for you, it's just going to put you on a treadmill until you collapse or learn how to use it properly.
you can fuel yourself with spite and salt and self-flagellation all you want, but even if you do get good, you're going to have a bad time and probably inflict your bad time on others.
find clean fuel that will burn for a long time and you'll be happier for it.
also: it's okay not to like the new game that everyone's playing.
the odds that any given FG is The One are low, and if you don't love the game you might just wanna move on and try something else.
i've played games i disliked for years and did not grow past disliking them.
my personal fighting game practice is focused on finding games that i want to play forever, so it's pretty easy for me to move on when something isn't really hitting.
that may not be your way, but it's the one i've found that keeps me around and playing and having fun.
