2012 Golf Goals

source; museumarts.com

Each year I set goals for all aspects of my life; financial, personal, spiritual and of course, golf.  This process begins in December of the previous year as I assess the goals of that year and start to outline what I wish to accomplish the following year.

 As I began my career out of college I took a class on goal setting.  In that class they taught us not only how to set goals but why we should set them.  Statistics show that people who set goals are much more likely to achieve them.  Research has shown that you not only need to set goals but you must also write them down.  By writing down your goals it provides you the opportunity to view them periodically.  This will keep you focused on the goals you have set.  This step also acts as constant reminder that the goal exists and your behavior needs to reflect that goal.   Last year I began the year with seven golf goals and only achieved four of them.  Not bad considering they were all fairly difficult to achieve in the first place.  Since I am not one to dwell on the negative here are the goals I did achieve.

2011 Golf Goals Achieved

·         Repeated as Club Champion

·         Improved Lag Putting

·         Reduced risk in shot making, playing smarter

·         Improved Greenside Bunker Play

As I reflect on the previous year’s goals I always ask myself, why did I achieve or not achieve each of the goals?  This past year it was clearly practice and focus.  I guess I could probably say that every year but last year that was the case.  I spent an inordinate amount of time practicing these areas in an effort to see marked improvement.

 I thought I would share my 2012 goals with everyone and we will have to check back next year to see how I fared.  Of course, some goals are more easily measured than others.  For example, qualifying for a tournament is very easy to measure.  Whereas, improving bunker play is not so simple.   The less quantifiable goals are more based upon your own judgment.  You need to ask yourself if you truly achieved the goal or not.  This is where being honest with yourself is key.  It does not pay to tell yourself you achieved a goal when in fact, you did not.  One last thing I have learned over the years is to have attainable goals.  They need to stretch you but they also need to be reachable.  Otherwise, you will lose interest early on in the process and probably shy away from goal setting in the future.

My 2012 Golf Goals

·         Defend the Club Championship

·         Improve my chipping around the greens

·         Improve longer bunker play

·         Improve pitching from 65-95 yards

·         Buy a new putter

One last Goal I wanted to achieve last year was related to my Blog.  I had hoped to exceed five thousand page views by the end of 2011 and we exceed that goal significantly.  Let’s see if we cannot reach the twenty thousand page view mark by the end of this year.

What are your golf goals for 2012 and how do you track them?