On the other hand, George is probably better technically, physically, strategically and overall as a fighter. Saint Pierre understands the game like nobody else. He understands and pays attention to details that other fighters simply ignore. He has been training extremely hard and pushing himself in new ways. Probably if you were to put realistic odds of winning, all things equal, would be 35 to 1. In other words, out of 36 fights, Jake could win one and George would win 35. No surprises here.

Now, what is the problem of thinking like that? If Georges believes those odds positively, he won’t feel too much pressure and perform at his best, if he believes those odds negatively he may loose the edge that he needs to win and become afraid (fear). If Jake believes those odds positively, he won’t feel the pressure and just perform at his best, which still may not be enough to beat George; if Jake believes those odds negatively, then he may loose the fight even before stepping in the octagon. No surprises here.

In my estimation of this fight, something that could have a real effect on this fight is that George is too afraid. This fear comes not from what normally you would think – fighting – but instead from the fear of loss. His friends tell him that it is good to be scared, however they don’t see the difference between both kinds of fear. When one appreciates something very dearly you don’t want to lose it. The more you see the possibility of loosing, you increase, sometimes not even realistically, the fear of the negative outcome.

Since I am a fan of George, I will only give in this article my personal strategic thoughts to benefit him.

This fear is the single most important aspect by which great athletes loose to inferior opponents. The only way the fear will go away is through gratefulness. I know that it sounds absurd, but if George visualizes the negative consequences of loosing this fight, he will increase the chances of loosing. Being thankful for fighting is the only way to stay away from fear of loss. Why? Because if you are genuinely thankful for the opportunity to fight, to do what you love, to entertain, to give you best, to make your dreams come true, that is the only moment when you care equally for either outcome. At that mental place you don’t really care about consequences, you welcome the challenge and you are ok with any result.

You may have better weapons to defeat your opponent, but your mind controls every single one of them. Think about it this way: You may have the largest nuclear weapon in your arsenal, but that only matters if you detonate it on your enemy. Imagine the devastating consequences of detonating the bomb in your own fortress.

There are plenty of examples of fighters that loose their fights before they step into the octagon, even with better tools than their opponent. On the other hand, there are plenty of examples of fighters that win before the fight begins; let me give you a concrete example – Randy Couture. Randy is probably one of the most “truly” composed fighters to step into the octagon. The reason for his success is sometimes mistaken as experience, but truly is gratefulness. Randy is at peace with the outcome of the fight before he steps into the octagon.

My Advice to George:
1. Be thankful that you will very probably win this fight.
2. Be thankful that there is a small probability that Jake can win this fight.
3. Be thankful that you can loose in the first place. What kind of challenge would it be if there was no chance of loosing. Champions are as big as their challenges.
4. Be thankful that you are already the best fighter to ever live.
5. Be thankful that the best in the world can also loose and still be the best.
6. Be thankful that you can fight next Saturday.
7. Be thankful that Jake can fight next Saturday.
8. Be thankful that people care about your fight.
9. Be thankful that you get a chance to fight for a title.
10. Be thankful.
11. Be thankful to God, that gave you the talent, the desire, the life and the will to fight and to encourage with your example people like me.

Alex Centeno.

The steps are extremely simple:
1. Open up an image in Photoshop (better if you are using a RAW file as opposed to a JPG).
2. Create a Smart Object with your image.
3. Duplicate your Smart Object and then simply rasterize the copy.
4. Double click on your smart object to modify that particular instance of your image.
5. Go to LAYER > ADJUSTMENTS > HDR TONE MAPPING
6. Select one of the presets depending on the desired effect. I ussed surreal.
7. Save and Close that Smart Object.
8. Back in your original image move the HDR Tone Mapped Layer to the top and change the blending mode to Overlay.
9. Apply a Gaussian Blur to the Layer.
10. Adjust the amount of effect by reducing or increasing the opacity of the layer.

Simple, yet powerful. That is always the best way to do things. Do you want double points? Perhaps you could try to create an action with this steps and that way you can call the action directly in a group of images from Adobe Bridge.

In any event here is the video tutorial:

Second Part

Alex Centeno

So you might be thinking… Why is this guy using a WordPress theme for his site if he is a media designer, right? Well…let me explain. Have you ever seen those fancy pages that say something like: “we are under construction – please visit this website in the near future…” well, instead of posting that, I decided to bring my old WordPress installation into place, upgrade it to the latest edition (which by the way looks great) and finally put up a post about why I did what I did.
Now, I had planned to use a full featured content management system in this site. Something along the lines of Drupal. Nonetheless, I think I might consider WordPress since I already installed it and it is looking pretty good.
I like the new interface and the fancy AJAX they have going all over the place in the Dashboard.

Anyways, if you are here looking for some of my latest projects then make sure to visit my portfolio page (which by the time you read this should be up and running) and let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you,
Alex