Last time I talked about the obvious first step to achieving goals, deciding what you want, and mentioned a few things about that decision making that isn’t as obvious. The next step is defining why you want it what you want. Most players focus the majority of their time on the “what” and leave the “why” as an after thought.
Knowing “why” is critical because:
1) It helps you clarify your goals and gives you one more opportunity to be very specific about what you’re setting out to accomplish.
2) You can use it to push you through the times when you fall off track. Anything that is worth going for is going to challenge you, and remembering why you are doing this is a great motivator to avoid distractions, being lazy, or totally bailing.
So take some time and figure out specifically the underlying reasons or motives for achieving your goals.
Literally, ask yourself “why do I want it?”.
These could be any number of things such as: fame, money, achievement, mastering a skill, the challenge, learning, or just for motivation. Once you have the list, write them next to your goals and as obvious as it may sound keep reminding yourself of them for a few weeks, so you reinforce what these goals or Resolutions are for.
Also, if your Resolutions or goals are all poker related, also think about how poker fits into the context for your life. If you’re a pro, how does poker facilitate the quality of life you want to live. Knowing this can be a good remind when you go through periods when running well so you don’t get complacent and keep working.
Now that you know why you want it and what you want – you can develop a plan to accomplish it.
Final Thoughts
This was just a short piece, that’s part of a series on new years resolutions. In this series I break down several brackets of performance psychology. Wether you’re setting new goals for your poker year. Or maybe you’re getting into cryptocurrency trading and investing while the price of Bitcoin keeps surging. Whatever goals you’re setting for yourself, know why you want it!
