The Mental Side Of Golf: Part 6 Setting Your Goals in Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles
The Mental Side Of Golf: Part 6 Setting Your Goals in Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles

As a golfer trying to improve at golf, I think it's really important that you break the game down into a few little small sections and your goals set. You set yourself some targets, something that you're going to try to achieve within each season of playing golf.

And I think the best way to goal set is to use smart goals. You've heard of smart goals talked about in business and other sports. So, smart goals. Again, it’d be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely. So, if you'll look at a specific target, it might be to get your handicap down from 28 to 24. That's a good specific target and you who might be able to look at that and seize it. Even if your long term target is to bring your handicap down to let's say 14 or 15 handicap something like that. It's a bit too much of a big target. So, we get really specific and look at 28 to 24.

The next thing is to make sure your target is measurable. The easy thing in golf is measuring your improvement because you've always got a score card in your hand where you've always handed your card into the committee after the competition and they will change your handicap. So, that gives you the measurable aspect in golf. Now achievable is moving from 28 to scratch in a season achievable? Probably not, very few people would ever achieve that in a history of the game, but 28 to 24 that’s a good achievable target. If your goal is too broad or too big, you're only going to end up with disappointments and you’ll feel like you can't achieve your target, motivation suffers, 28 to 24 is an achievable target.

Now relevant. Is moving from 28 to 24 a relevant target? Yes, because I want to get back to it, so that’s a good relevant target. Trying to drive the ball 300 yards doesn't really seem relevant to actually becoming a better golfer necessarily because it doesn't mean that you would score better. So, just bring in the relevant side of things and make sure that you're focusing on the right aspect when you are goal setting.

And then timely, we’d probably give our self a period of a season or a few months within a season to achieve certain targets. You might have a mid season checkpoint of how am I going towards my targets and then the end of season checkpoint, did I achieve my target, did I miss my target or did I supersede my target? Did I get down to 22 or 23 handicap which means I've achieved my target plus a bit extra. So, trying to set yourself some smart goals for the forthcoming season and see how you go at improving your game with those goals in mind.

 2012-06-11

As a golfer trying to improve at golf, I think it's really important that you break the game down into a few little small sections and your goals set. You set yourself some targets, something that you're going to try to achieve within each season of playing golf.

And I think the best way to goal set is to use smart goals. You've heard of smart goals talked about in business and other sports. So, smart goals. Again, it’d be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely. So, if you'll look at a specific target, it might be to get your handicap down from 28 to 24. That's a good specific target and you who might be able to look at that and seize it. Even if your long term target is to bring your handicap down to let's say 14 or 15 handicap something like that. It's a bit too much of a big target. So, we get really specific and look at 28 to 24.

The next thing is to make sure your target is measurable. The easy thing in golf is measuring your improvement because you've always got a score card in your hand where you've always handed your card into the committee after the competition and they will change your handicap. So, that gives you the measurable aspect in golf. Now achievable is moving from 28 to scratch in a season achievable? Probably not, very few people would ever achieve that in a history of the game, but 28 to 24 that’s a good achievable target. If your goal is too broad or too big, you're only going to end up with disappointments and you’ll feel like you can't achieve your target, motivation suffers, 28 to 24 is an achievable target.

Now relevant. Is moving from 28 to 24 a relevant target? Yes, because I want to get back to it, so that’s a good relevant target. Trying to drive the ball 300 yards doesn't really seem relevant to actually becoming a better golfer necessarily because it doesn't mean that you would score better. So, just bring in the relevant side of things and make sure that you're focusing on the right aspect when you are goal setting.

And then timely, we’d probably give our self a period of a season or a few months within a season to achieve certain targets. You might have a mid season checkpoint of how am I going towards my targets and then the end of season checkpoint, did I achieve my target, did I miss my target or did I supersede my target? Did I get down to 22 or 23 handicap which means I've achieved my target plus a bit extra. So, trying to set yourself some smart goals for the forthcoming season and see how you go at improving your game with those goals in mind.