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Last week, I visualized my new workout partner. Today, I’m benching 20 lbs more than I ever have before. A few months ago, I noticed a 50-year-old man at the gym lifting twice what I lift in every exercise.

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Feel time pass. Feel a weight start to lift. Be scared of what this means. Be scared that if you get better, you will forget him.

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I grew up playing chess. It taught me a lot of great lessons about competition — and a lot of wrong lessons about life.

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The first draft of my new book—my first for children—was written in 2001, as a gift for my daughter, who was then eight and a half years old.