why short term goals are bad

[Exitonly]

i do agree that the format mts is suggesting would be better.

[ QUOTE ]
since you already wrote all that i'm sure you wont mind typing up a list that sums your post up into main points.

1. the only goal that you should ever have is to make good decisions

2. ...

please finish the list

[/ QUOTE ]

2. quit bustin' b*lls

All kidding aside ...

Sometimes the most complicated things can be said in one sentence.

The only long term goal is good decision-making. So what is that really ....??
- patience
- discipline
- hard work
- a passion for excellence
- etc.

The list goes on, but they are all subsets of the single statement.

You must have passion. If you have passion, then you have a desire to excel. If you have a desire to excel, then nothing but trying to be the best will do. Ok, so maybe most of us will never be more than 50th best, or 10,000th best. But the main part is passion and effort regardless of skill at life's end game.

Keep 'em coming PFKAOK!!

[Nepa]

[ QUOTE ]
setting goals like that in something as highly variant as MTT play is awful.

[/ QUOTE ]

Are you trying to say that ppl. shouldn't set goals? I think this idea is awful.

[Yuv]

It's nearly impossible to read it, and it's a shame, cause there's alot of good valid points there. Maybe give the texts to someone who will edit it for ya?

I'm finding out now how true your comments are. After running extremely well and feeling over-confidence, I couldn't handle a bad streak of cards (in SnG's, actually) and got me tilting aways a big chunk of money. The more I lose, the worst I play, the less confidence I have in my abilities.

But as you said, I think my biggest learnig experiences have been my low points, which happened twice. The first one nearly cost me my entire roll (at one point I had a SnG and a cash game running for my ENTIRE roll, which was about 5k at the time), early in my "career".

I'm sure you can avoid those and always look at the decision making alone. The truth is most of us can't. I know I can't, at this point of my "career". Short term goals aren't that bad, if you can handle the high and the low.

[Exitonly]

bah, i can't seem to concentrate to write up a long reply.

My girlfriend taught me a good (or i think) method for creating helpful goals. You set 3 goals.

Make one easily attainable.
Make one something that will require hard work
Make one that is nearly out of reach.

So lets say my goals were for school.

1. 2.0 GPA
2. 3.0 GPA
3. 4.0 GPA.

That's really rough, and you can/shouold break it down further (results on individual tests, etc)

That way, you're working towards goals, you dont get disheartened because if you actually work, you'll get atleast one of your goals, and you'll still be working for the other ones.

And you set a nearly unreachable goal because if you aim farther, you'll get better results. Like, lets say i aimed for jumping 20 feet in a long jumping contest (stupid analogy, but it's all thats coming to me), say i end up reaching 15ft. If i had oringally tried to jump 15 feet, i really doubt that i would have gone those 15ft.

Make sense?

--

So i partially agree that goals can hold you back, but i definitely think the goal method can be used effectively to produce good results.


THAT SAID.

I just make goals for fun, and i dont actively try and get them. Like, my 'goal' in that thread you mentioned was to win a bahamas seat. Is that something that i'm putting all my effort into? No. It's just something i'd like to accomplish, and theres nothing wrong with that.

--

as is the case for most of my posts, the thoughts arent organized, and aren't presented correctly. Oh well, you guys can figure out what i'm trying to say.

[Yuv]

In that case, my goals till new years are :

1) Lose all my money
2) Not lose all my money
3) Sleep with Jessica Alba.

[Exitonly]

[ QUOTE ]
In that case, my goals for till new years are :

1) Lose all my money
2) Not lose all my money
3) Sleep with Jessica Alba.

[/ QUOTE ]


See pfkaok?

This is how you make productive goals.

If Yuv tries to attain these goals, he will have slept with women that are far more similar looking to Jessica Alba, than if he didnt set these goals.

[Annulus]

Pfkaok,
I really respect your opinion and contributions, so please don't stop. I got to make this quick, but I think your post has alot of merit. The goals I make for playing are not really "making at least 4 final tables and winning 1" type but my goals are more or less things like don't play when tired, don't play when emotional unstable, etc... But things to that nature. I think those types of goals are ok, and they are under our control. But winning tournaments is not 100% up to us.

Nice post Exit. I agree 100%. Setting it up this way will keep me working to reach the first goal and when I reach that, I won't fall back and relax since I will fight even further since I got one goal ahead too. Even if I don't make the second goal, I still have made one of my goals. Nice viewpoint. Clever girl of yours [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[KneeCo]

Goals can be very good if created responsibly.

For instance, assume two equally skilled and equally bankrolled players set out to win PCA seats.
Players A plays when he feels up to it, and knows he wants to win a seat and not much else.
Player B organizes the task into a series of smaller objectives, for instance:
1) win 650 W$ by playing rebuy sats
2) Sweat the end of the Saturday MTT to have a general idea of what to expect toward the bubble.
3) Play the MTT sat on Nov 26th at the very earliest, assuming I've earned XXX $ by then, if not defer to two weeks later.

Setting goals like 'FT 6 tournaments' or 'win 5' is arbitrary and counter to the nature of MTTs, I agree with you there but certain calendar-based goals can be useful and I may go so far as to say necessary to maximizing your game.

There are a lot of goals (i.e. re-read TOP next week, finish that post I've been working on re: Stars 500k data*, play 5 deepstack tournaments this month to prepare for the WPT in January, ...), which I would argue are absolutely necessary to making one the best player they can be.

It is quite easy for a good player to get stuck in a groove and not better his game if he has not set goals to challenge himself to improve.

*forthcoming

P.S.
No offense, but after a period, the next letter should be in what's called "upper case", for instance 'a' becomes 'A' and so on, otherwise reading your posts is a major headache.
Read up and correct this in the future, make it a goal!