Resolutions

By David Fatum

Well it is a New Year and with that comes the New Year’s resolutions that we all make every year. Some of us will say we want to lose weight, stop smoking, save more money or maybe even practice darts more. The new year seems the perfect opportunity to make these changes in our lives to make this year better than the last, but we seem to fail most years. If you wish to see your New Year’s resolution be successful you need to treat it like setting a goal.

Goal setting/planning is a skill that, with practice, anyone can use to make the dreams they have become reality. It is a proven way to make positive changes and achieve your dreams as long as you come up with an effective plan to reach the goal. I have used this often in my own life to achieve major accomplishments over the years, and use it extensively in darts.

The way in which you set goals strongly affects their effectiveness. Here are a few guidelines for you to use.

1) The goal needs to be PERFORMANCE-based versus OUTCOME-based. This means do not set a goal of winning it all at Worlds. You cannot determine the outcome of a match but you can determine how you play. You may play the best match you have ever played but if your opponent does the same they may win the match because they started. So if your goal was winning, you failed. If you had set a goal to play at a personal best or a higher average than your last tournament, then you may succeed. You cannot control outcomes but you can control performances.

2) Your goal needs to be a PRECISE goal. This means you need to set a goal such as, “I will maintain a 3.5 average in two months” versus saying, “I want to be a better dart player.” A goal needs to be precise with dates, times, and amounts so that you can track the effectiveness of achieving your goal. Write down the results of your practice sessions and set new mini goals from your previous results to keep you moving in the right direction.

3) WRITE IT DOWN! Until you write your goal(s) on paper, it is just a dream, not a goal. Dreams are what we talk about and goals are what we plan to achieve. You need to come up with a plan, in writing, about what the goal is and how you will achieve it. The length of practice, how often, practice goals and track the session results.

4) Set REALISTIC goals. Setting goals that are unrealistically high/low will not lead to the positive changes you wish to achieve. Goals should be set so that they are at slightly outside of your ability range now, but are attainable with realistic effort and planning. If you are a 1.7mpr and want to be a 3.5mpr in two months, that may be setting the goal a bit high which would lead to disappointment instead of confidence. Set goals that take dedication to achieve, achieve them, then set new goals leading to your 3.5mpr.

Effective goal setting takes a bit of practice to acquire but it will lead you to becoming that player or person you want to be. Have a great New Year.