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Write down your poker goals
Few people can comprehend the power of the written word (I’m a writer, and even I have hard time with it!) If you want to understand just how influential a short list of ‘To-Do’s’ can be consider the following: 3% of Harvard MBA’s make 10 times more money than the other 97% combined; very interesting…
The rumored reason for the performance discrepancy is ‘written goals’. There is a fictional/factual study conducted in 1979, where interviewers asked: “Have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?”
* 84% had no specific goals at all
* 13% had goals but they were not committed to paper
* 3% had clear, written goals and plans to accomplish them
There’s that 3% number! Despite how often this ‘study’ is cited and used in motivational speeches, it’s unclear whether it actually took place. Whether a real study or not, there is little argument over whether the analysis is accurate. Almost everyone agrees that clearly defining your goals and creating a path to follow is the first step towards success.
So, what does a possibly fictional 1979 Harvard study have to do with poker? Well, the idea of written goals applies just as well to poker as to any other endeavor. If you can clearly write down your goals and review them every day, you are more likely to pursue these goals.
Creating Goals
When writing down your goals, you want to make sure they are attainable but difficult to accomplish; clearly defined; and do not overwhelm yourself by setting too many goals.
What type of goals should you write down?
The first set of goals should be your session goals:
* Use proper game selection
* Stay focused on the game
* Stay composed
The next set of goals should be your short-term (3-month) goals
* Move up to $xx.xx limits
* Learn PLO
* Read 2 poker books
Your final set of goals should be your long-term (5 or 10 Year) goals
* Win a major tournament
* Make $xx.xx in winnings
* Consistently play $xx.xx stakes
Plan of action
In addition to setting these goals you should detail the steps you are going to follow to make these dreams come true. Any yahoo with a pen can write down that he wants to make $1,000,000, but unless he has some type of plan it will always be just an unaccomplished dream: And looking at that scrap of paper every single day, for years, will just create more stress and feelings of hopelessness.
Starting with your session goals of game selection, staying focused, and staying composed; you need to have a plan of action for each.
For instance, you could set aside 20 minutes toward game selection: In a casino this could be perusing the board for games within your limits, and then checking each table’s lineup. For staying focused you could order a coffee (swear not to drink alcohol), and set a predetermined amount of time to play. For staying composed you could vow to take a 5 minute walk after any bad beat, cooler, or big loss.
For your short-term goals of moving up in stakes, learning PLO, and reading two poker books; you will need a similar plan.
If you want to move up in limits you could set yourself a bankroll goal to reach before moving up. To learn PLO you could set aside 1 hour each day to play penny tables online. To make sure you read those two poker books you could already purchase them and leave them by your bedside.
Your long-term goals will need a longer plan of action, and will actually be the culmination of your short-term goals. If you don’t reach all of your short-term goals in the allotted 3-month timeframe, continue on until you do. And at this point it’s for a new set of short-term goals! Eventually your short-term goals will be the same as your long-term goals that you wrote down years before.
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