GOLF MENTAL GAME TRAINING TIPS BY DR. RICK SESSINGHAUS
A key element that we’ve all heard about is goal setting and it is a crucial component to flow and your golf mental game performance. Now, there’s many different methods and I just want to share with you some key ideas as you start to build your own goal strategies.
Setting Smart Goals for Golf Performance
First off, why are goals important is because they give you a target to go for. That target can now help your focus on a day to day basis. If we just say, “Hey, I want to get better at something,” but we’re not sure what better means or what something is, then we’re really going to be distracted as we go. The goal is about clarifying your intention. What’s under your control, what the outcome that you want.
The first part is the outcome, being very specific with that. I’m sure you’ve heard about smart goals and things like that, which are great. I just want to highlight a few things that I think are missing with some people’s goal setting. First is the outcome. A lot of people do a fairly good job of that. They clarify what they want and when it’s going to be achieved. Time. That’s good.
The Importance of Performance Goals
The next thing though is performance. In order to lead to that outcome goal, what performance standards do you need to meet? For instance, if you want your sales to now be $200,000 in your business, what’s the performance that would have to occur?
Well, it’s either quantity or the price point, or anything like that would have to lead to that. I’m going to have to do X amount of sales this month, X amount next month. Now we’re very specific with the performance that’s going to lead to that outcome.
Now, part of the performance, which is the actual measurables, would be the process behind it. What, that’s in my control, is going to lead me towards that performance? For instance, in a sales analogy, it’s now I need to make 20 phone calls per day that could lead to two leads, which now leads to one sale, for instance. Be very honest with what behaviors are needed to get to that goal.
We have an outcome goal. What are the performance goals that would get you closer to that? But, ultimately, it comes down to the process. What do I need to do on a daily, weekly basis to move forward to that? What are those behaviors that are going to lead me to that?
The last key area is sacrifice. What I mean by that is a lot of people get really excited about their goals because they’re usually very positive and they can’t wait to do it. Yet, they don’t see that it’s going to require a change in habits, a change in time, a change in resources.
You’re actually going to have to sacrifice some things in order to pursue that goal. If you’re not clear on that, and the first time you run into that brick wall that has you make a decision on, oh, I was supposed to make that call but now I have this family thing I have to go to. That pull now can create a disconnect. Unfortunately, now maybe both don’t go very well.
Part of the goal is to be able to be clear on what you want, but also be clear on what habits are you going to change? What’s your timeframe going to change? Because you’re going to have to sacrifice things in order to pursue those goals.
Be clear on your outcome, the performance, the process that’s going to lead to that, and then also what are the things you have to sacrifice in order to pursue those. When you have clear goals, it helps you to effectively hack your golf mental game.
