It's also one of the hardest games (sports) mentally, you can sit for a few minutes or few breakes and all you can do is wait for opponent to make a mistake - or play a safe. All you can do is try to stay focused and positive, not sulking over mistake you just made that might've lost you the whole match, to not mess up a chance when it comes.
Basically I've been playing billards all my life. Never really got better, playing at the same level for years. Meaning that getting more than two or three balls at one go was a rarity.
Until one day when I stopped looking at the white when playing a shot and instead I started looking at the target ball. It's weird that it took me so long to make that little change but it completely changed my skill level.
Something else I realised was that the less time I think about a shot the better the shot comes. As you said, it's a very mental game.
And I realised that it's all about placement: where do I want the white to be after playing a ball into the pocket.
