Goals Setting & Fixing Broken Windows

When you become a pro poker player, you end up spending countless hours, playing hundreds if not thousands of hands repetitively sitting in front of a computer. After a while, motivation can become an issue with most players, especially when they know they have commit the time to get the volume in.

Lazyness sets in, and you start making excuses. I've been reading up on Jarad Tendler's great book, and listening in on some sessions he's had with James Atkin (thanks for sharing), and its been really helpful.

The main problem for most guys is that they have such a free schedule, that its hard to get any kinda structure in at all. For poker players, we play when we want, and have awesome freedom. But too much of this can lead to periods of lazyness, demotivation, and mega procrastination. Its no coincidence that poker players are known to show these characteristics.

Poker for me is work. I should treat it that way. Its how I make money, and the overall plan of playing hundreds of thousands of hands seem quite daunting. Which is why goals setting is so important... it helps you take small steps towards reaching your eventual goal.

Old Mentality;

- I play when I feel like it.
- I'll quit when I feel I'm not playing 100% or don't want to play anymore.
- I'll quit a little earlier now and play more tomorrow (I didn't, and procrastinated more).
- I didn't reach my monthly set goals, but its ok. (Its not.)

In one of my favourite books, "Freakonomics", they talk about how New York took steps to making their subways safer and better. It talked about something called "Broken Window Theory". The idea behind this is, that if a random building has a broken window, and it doesn't get fixed... after a while (whether it is true or not) it gives out the impression that nobody cares about this building. Soon, graffiti appears on the walls, and once that's not cleaned, squatters take over and the whole area becomes run down. This small thing, of not fixing that one window turned into a huge thing.

So with the subway, they started out by making sure no one jumped the barriers and paid. People did that coz they could, and no one stopped them... it seemed that no one cared. Then, by being stricter with that, all other areas improved in an amazingly short space of time.

Does this building look like its being cared for?

Relating this back to our goals setting; not for filling what we said we would do becomes a broken window. Its true that it probably doesn't matter this "one time", but really we know its not one time, and over time we make it acceptable to not achieve our set goals and procrastinate and be lazy. Jarad talks about the importance of being a "man of your word"; if you say you'll do something, you will damn well do it because when you say you will do it, what you say has value and meaning.

Another thing about goals setting, is that its good to do it in advance for yourself, to help you prepare. Planning things whilst your in a logical state! For example, in poker it is a good idea to plan for what to do in future streets so that you can prepare for it, and not make the wrong decision which could be influenced by emotion.

If you have JJ and the flop is A38, I will say, I want to check/call this flop and get to the turn... before I actually do anything. The pre planning of what you will do helps you get experienced in these situations. So with goals setting, playing until you get tired might be a good way to "caveman" it, but if you have a monthly goal of reaching a number of games it might not be a good idea because you might wear yourself out instead of pacing yourself towards your goal.

New Mentality;

- I will set small goals to build up to achieve the bigger goals.
- I will predetermine when I play, and be true to my word.
- When I play it will be a predetermined volume amount, at least 50 games, in order to achieve my set goals.
- It is unacceptable to not do something if I had said that I would do it.

I hope that this will help you guys in trying to play a little bit more disciplined in terms of the sessions that you do. After all, its so easy to forget that this is work none the less, although not as bad as sitting in an office imo (sorry if u do lol).

Make overall goals, then break it down with smaller ones that lead towards that goal, and then SMASH EM OUT DA PARK!!! BOOM!