Five-figure week, you're doing it wrong

Started out this month well, running up around $8k... then in the last week I've swung down around $10-12k. It's been my worst ever week in poker and is proving to be pretty confidence shattering. I played higher stakes than usual this month, the bulk of my hands have been at 2/4 but a fair chunk at 3/6-5/10 with some shots at 10/20 too.

I'm probably employing more aggressive shot-taking and moving up strategies than most professionals, but I'm comfortable with it. The high-stakes games have been really good and I'm +EV enough for it to be worth the variance. However I know right now that I need to drop down to regain confidence.

I feel some stubbornness in myself, that I don't want to grind 1/2 when I've been playing higher (and when I can see that some of the higher games are soft) but I know it's what needs to be done right now. There's no room for stubbornness or ego in poker. I see blog posts every week with people complaining about how they "should be" or "are good enough to be" beating a limit. So many people aren't willing to take full responsibility for their own results. The fact is that noone is as good at poker as they think they are.

On a personal level I'm very disappointed with how my first year as a pro is going. I made a goal to make $150k this year and it's becoming clear that I'm not going to get close to that. I can relate the way I'm feeling just now back to tough times when I was working on my degree or on GTA, having low confidence and not being sure if I'd be able to make it to completion. Getting beat down every time I try to move up is incredibly frustrating. I know that I just need to take things as they come and work hard and I'll get there. Results will come.

I'm off to the pub to watch Man U crush Barca... I'll leave you with some inspirational Michael Jordan.