Setting Targets

I have been a bit slack in setting myself targets over the past few months and am going to make more of an effort in this regard.

In the absence of targets I tend to be a bit too results orientated and forget what I am trying to achieve. Problem is I have set myself targets in the past that were fundamentally flawed.

The poker mindset has a good section on setting targets and has helped me stop setting silly targets like “win 4+BB per 100 hands this month or else you suck” but I still I seem to set targets that are dismissed very quickly (usually a week tops!) and this is what led to the title of my blog. My wife tells me I am way too fickle (typical Tottenham fan :-) and that I need to stick to the targets I set myself. That’s the whole point of targets right?

Well yes, but some of my targets are more like experiments and if I am clearly getting things wrong I would prefer to go back to the drawing board immediately, rather than wasting time trying to achieve a target that is clearly flawed. Having said that I want to expressly state these ‘experiments’ as this forces me to review and analyse rather than just ditching them because I have a couple of bad sessions.

So here’s my solution to setting targets:

I am going to create a monthly league for my experiments with promotion and relegation depending on how they perform.

Premier League

This will be the holy grail for an experiment. If they make it to the Premier League then they have proved their worth and will feature in every set of monthly targets. It is very difficult to make it into the premier league and but once an experiment gets there only serious and consistent underperformance will result in relegation.

There is currently just one target worthy of premier league status and this will be revealed in my targets for May 2008.

Championship

This is the division for experiments battling for Premier League status. They will be thoroughly tested during the month and will have to work extremely hard to prove they are worthy of promotion. Those that do not live up to expectation may get another shot at the Premier League next month but may also be relegated to the Lower League. Experiments relegated from the championship are likely to drop out of the league altogether pretty soon after.

Lower League

This division will be made up of experiments that have tried and failed in the past, most of which claim to be sleeping giants, together with new experiments that have not yet had the chance to make the top. All experiments dream of making it big but for now it is a long way off.

So now I have a system in place. All I have to do is stick to it!