Wisdom Wednesday – A Goal Without a Plan

So, it’s 2015.  Another year starts, another season of holidays ends.  A lot of us end our years in the same way.  We overindulge, eat too much, stop going to the gym (if we were even going in the first place), and otherwise slip into what we know is bad behavior simply because “things are going to change on the first”.

We eat too much thinking that the new diet starts on the first.  We skip our workouts because our new workout plan starts on the first.  We keep smoking because we are going to quit on the first.  We don’t practice putting because we are going to start doing that on the first.  The first of January must be the most highly planned out day in our society!

In my last GBO update, I talked a little about why I don’t make resolutions.  Just because I have an alternate to resolutions doesn’t mean that you do.  Many of you spent New Year’s Eve with friends and family trading stories of your hopes and promises for the new year.  Everyone yearns for a life that is better than the one they have, this is human nature.  Time spent envisioning this improved future is fun. It’s enjoyable to see a better version of ourselves in our mind’s eye.

Phrases like “I’m going to lose weight”, “I’m going to quit smoking”, “I’m going to get in shape”, “I’m going to get my degree”, “I’m going to get a better job”, “I’m going to raise my player rating”, “I’m going to be a great putter.”, and many, many more fill our heads with the hopes and dreams that this year will be the year.  This will be the year where we finally live up to the potential that we all know is inside of us!

[tweetthis]This year, I’m going to be a better disc golfer![/tweetthis]

The problem with all of those hopes and dreams and promises to ourselves is that they are all results.  They are visions of the end product.  I wrote an article a while back about achieving lower disc golf scores (I’m guessing more than one of you had a resolution related to lower scores, right?).  In this article, I pointed out that a score is an output, a result.

Why is this important?  It’s important because most people will fail at achieving their results oriented resolutions in the first few months of the new year.  This leaves them depressed, disappointed, and waiting until next year to do it all over again.  That doesn’t have to be the case!

These results based resolutions would work great if they added just one component…  A detailed and realistic plan for achieving them.  As the picture says, “A goal without a plan is just a wish”.  Wishes don’t come true without action.  That action comes in the form of a plan.

Do you want to lose weight?  Then what are you going to eat every day?  “Less” doesn’t count as a plan.  Specifically, what, how much, and when?  When will you go to the store to shop for that food?  How will you keep yourself out of the drive through?  All this and more goes into the plan that will help you achieve the goal of losing weight.

The same type of plan is needed to lower your disc golf scores.  When are you going to practice?  What are you going to practice?  How are you going to measure your improvement?  What is your well thought out and detailed plan for improvement?  “I’m going to go play a lot more” is NOT a plan to get better.  This is a big reason behind my decision to post my training plan for the 2015 GBO each and every week here on the blog.

[tweetthis]”I’m going to play more” is NOT an effective way to improve your #discgolf game[/tweetthis]

Every day on Twitter, I post a motivational image.  The hashtags are always #truth #life #discgolf.  As Patrick McCormick points out in “Zen and the Art of Disc Golf”, life is a reflection of your behavior on the course and your behavior on the course is a reflection of your life.  Whether you want to improve your life, your disc golf, or both, you need a plan.

I’ve said a few times recently that at the end of your life you will look back and say one of two things…  “I’m glad I did” or “I wish I had”  There’s that wish word again.  Wishes only lead to regret and disappointment.  If you want to say “I’m glad I did” then you have to have a plan.

So, get some goals.  Get the plans together to achieve those goals.  Get out there and kick some ass!

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