[LearnedfromTV]

This post is an overreaction to the effects of short-term variance. Sure, your monthly results aren't usually going to be in line with your expected monthly results, but most of the time they'll be in the ballpark, and setting a goal at the beginning of a month is a nice way to keep you focused through the month.

As long as it's only a component of how you evaluate yourself and as long as you don't take it too seriously, saying "I'd like to make X FT's or make a Final 3" or whatever is fine, if anything, it gives you a chance to reevaluate at the beginning of every month what is realistic for your skill level, and whether you make the goals or not, gives you a metric through which you can think about your actual performance. Like "I thought at the beginning of the month that I would play enough and I was good enough to make 5 FT's, I actually only made 3, what happened?" Or "I made seven, good for me... but i did get a little lucky".

As long as you put it in context, there is nothing wrong with results oriented goals. Especially because there are psychological benefits to setting landmarks in this admittedly very long-run game.