The past few weeks I've stumbled upon a secret way to making huge strength gains. It's something I often forget about, and have to "rediscover" every so often.
Fun. Having Fun while training may be the best thing I've ever done for my Powerlifting progress. While I'm not saying training sessions shouldn't be taken seriously, and while you should definitely be focused on the task at hand-- all of these things should be enjoyable to some degree!
I've probably mentioned it before-- but I think it's because its so easy for me/most people to lose sight of why we powerlift. Nobody is paying us tons of money to do this, to make the sacrifices that we do in order to be successful. We lift because we love it, because it makes us happy, because it's FUN.
While I have the tendency to go into my dark tunnel of seriousness-- I'm lucky to be surrounded by folks (i.e. Murph) and others who help check me/keep me from taking myself too seriously. As a result-- I have great training sessions, and am able to walk out of the gym fatigued, exhausted, but grinning from ear to ear excited to come back for my next session.