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Goals - setting SMART targets

philomilo

Phuket, Thailand

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November 9, 2010 - 7:35 pm

I thought I would share some of my wisdom with the community here in regard to setting a targets for your poker goals.

Any targets you set for yourself should be S.M.A.R.T:

S – Specific

M – Measureable

A – Achieveable

R – Realistic

T – Time Specific

A target such as “I will get better at poker and not lose my bankroll” is not a SMART target.

“I will increase my bankroll from $100 to $500 in two months by spending 25 hours a week playing MTTs on PS” is SMART.

“I will increase my bankroll from $100 to $10000 in one month by playing 200 hours a week” is specific and measureable but neither achieveable (in terms of the monetary goal) or realistic (in terms of the number of hours) nor does it have a time specific goal.

Hope this helps everyone here with their goals and target setting

kringle87

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November 10, 2010 - 12:54 pm

I think this is a great idea/acromyn. I'm def. going to use it. I think it's imporant to have very specifiy goals to get progreesively better in a good amout of time then to try to “get there” aimlessly.

mistergj

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November 10, 2010 - 4:44 pm

I think you are absolutely right – targets always need to be SMART. I think it is much better, though, to set targets that you can control such as volume, watching videos, posting, reviewing and discussing hands, rather than monetary ones that you can't. I'm reading 'Poker Mindset' at the moment and it talks about monetary targets and how they can affect your play, e.g. what if your bankroll is only at $300 in two months by spending 25 hours a week playing MTTs on PS? Are you going to change the way you play? Will you feel dejected?

But as I said, SMART targets are great! So, my target for November is to play at least 100 MTTs on PS, FT and AP by playing at weekends, using some of my weekday evenings to review hands. Nice post!

philomilo

Phuket, Thailand

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November 10, 2010 - 6:19 pm

Excellent point mistergi – probably a bad example from me to focus on bankroll and you are absolutely right, targets are probably better off being focused on something else, such as volume or research hours.

If one does make a monetary target and does not attain it, then the next target needs to be more Achieveable. Small targets which are easily achieved are going to be a great motivator and should be the way to start.

Whatever the focus of the target, they are an extremely important part of self-improvement and all players, even the pros can benefit from setting S.M.A.R.T targets.

Now all I have to do is set one myself – once I can get some money deposited on Pokerstars or AP!

Leftymike

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November 20, 2010 - 4:12 pm

we spent a week on S.M.A.R.T. in Organizational Behavior in college last semester

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