To start with, I believe goals are very important in pool. Too many people believe fundamentals are the foundation of a great pool game. I do not. I believe it is desire. Burning desire. Sure, you need good fundamentals, and desire alone won't replace that need. But with desire you'll go along way, and if you have desire to develop great fundamentals and put together a world class game you will do so. But no one gets great lethargically stroking into a coke bottle. So I believe the foundation of a pool game is desire.
There was a recent thread asking about rekindling desire. To me this is about goals. Goals are designed to create a challenge for your skill set that can only be overcome by growth. Growth is the process we go through in striving to achieve our goals. Desire is the fuel source unlocked when moving us to achieve that growth. So if you want to have desire and achieve growth, you need goals.
The problem is that goal setting itself is a really weird thing. To start with they have to be big enough to create inspiration and enthusiasm, but realistic enough to be believable. If you set your goals too low you'll lose interest because hitting them wouldn't be exciting. But if you set them too high and don't believe they're possible you'll lose interest because you won't see any possibility of achieving them.
This is where most of the players I see make a profound mistake: They try to pick their goals. They write it down. "I want to run 100 balls", or "I want to win an open tournament in my area". Now maybe these are good goals. But oftentimes I feel they are choosing goals consciously, and just saying what they feel like they should be saying. But do those goals really inspire them?
I've been doing this a long time and I've come to believe you don't get to pick your goals. They are deep down inside of you. Look at it this way: You don't get to pick what jokes you laugh at and which ones you don't find funny. You don't get to pick which books you really enjoy and which ones bore you (I used to buy books I thought I ought to read, or I'd buy a book because I liked the idea of being the kind of person that read that kind of book. Never finished one of them. Now I only buy books I actually want to read. This is the same thing). You don't get to choose what music you like and what you find tedious. Goals are the same way. You don't get to choose what excites you. You have to figure out what actually does and connect with that. The same way you can't pocket balls well without connecting to the shots and feeling them, you must connect with your goals and feel them.
So we don't decide what has meaning to us, we have to uncover what will be meaningful to us and align our action to that. How do you find your goals? Well, take a look at the road you've walked in your life the last 5, 10, 20 years. Which direction have you been moving? If there are a lot of things you've been meaning to do like learning to cook, odds are this wasn't really important to you. But, if you are still playing pool year after year, reading this forum day after day, maybe pool has some meaning to you.
What is that meaning? It doesn't have to be that you win big tournaments or run hundreds of balls. But what is it that you've been quietly trying to accomplish at the table? If it was all over tomorrow, what would you like to have achieved before you lose your sight and arm and time in this life to play? Now, does the idea of doing this sound meaningful to you? If you could do it today, would it make your heart race a little, or at least get you to forget your age for a minute and walk to the pool table with more pep than last practice session? If not keep digging! You can't force this. You have to finesse it and find what works as opposed to what you feel you ought to want.
For me it is easy. See, I've played a long time and play very well. But there are certain parts of my game weaker than average for a player of my level. Those weak links have always held me back. I've worked long and hard to compensate for them and have gotten farther than I thought I could. But I have always wanted to see what my game would look like if I plugged those leaks. I have an idea of how that game would look in terms of play, fargo rate, and tournament results. And dog gone it, I'd like to do that before it's over. That is what means something to me. That is what wakes up my inner beast. Anyone want to bet on whether I get there? I also want to be known as one of the best pool instructors in the world. Not for me, but because I want everyone to get a taste of how I feel when I play. It's a beautiful game and there's no reason not to play it beautifully. Enough of me. Back to you all.
For some they already have uncovered your true goals. Great. For others they may be ok not having any. Growth doesn't have to be important, if you enjoy spending time on the table playing the same level of the video game again once in a while that is totally fine as well.
But for those who have a burning desire for growth, or for those who have a burning desire to once again feel burning desire, I say get out the shovel and start digging. Don't assume you know your goals. Don't assume they are obvious. Life's too short to sit around or force yourself down dead end roads. Spent more time looking at where you've been trying to walk over the last stretch of your life, figure out what actually means something to you and throw the rest out. Lets-a-GO!
There was a recent thread asking about rekindling desire. To me this is about goals. Goals are designed to create a challenge for your skill set that can only be overcome by growth. Growth is the process we go through in striving to achieve our goals. Desire is the fuel source unlocked when moving us to achieve that growth. So if you want to have desire and achieve growth, you need goals.
The problem is that goal setting itself is a really weird thing. To start with they have to be big enough to create inspiration and enthusiasm, but realistic enough to be believable. If you set your goals too low you'll lose interest because hitting them wouldn't be exciting. But if you set them too high and don't believe they're possible you'll lose interest because you won't see any possibility of achieving them.
This is where most of the players I see make a profound mistake: They try to pick their goals. They write it down. "I want to run 100 balls", or "I want to win an open tournament in my area". Now maybe these are good goals. But oftentimes I feel they are choosing goals consciously, and just saying what they feel like they should be saying. But do those goals really inspire them?
I've been doing this a long time and I've come to believe you don't get to pick your goals. They are deep down inside of you. Look at it this way: You don't get to pick what jokes you laugh at and which ones you don't find funny. You don't get to pick which books you really enjoy and which ones bore you (I used to buy books I thought I ought to read, or I'd buy a book because I liked the idea of being the kind of person that read that kind of book. Never finished one of them. Now I only buy books I actually want to read. This is the same thing). You don't get to choose what music you like and what you find tedious. Goals are the same way. You don't get to choose what excites you. You have to figure out what actually does and connect with that. The same way you can't pocket balls well without connecting to the shots and feeling them, you must connect with your goals and feel them.
So we don't decide what has meaning to us, we have to uncover what will be meaningful to us and align our action to that. How do you find your goals? Well, take a look at the road you've walked in your life the last 5, 10, 20 years. Which direction have you been moving? If there are a lot of things you've been meaning to do like learning to cook, odds are this wasn't really important to you. But, if you are still playing pool year after year, reading this forum day after day, maybe pool has some meaning to you.
What is that meaning? It doesn't have to be that you win big tournaments or run hundreds of balls. But what is it that you've been quietly trying to accomplish at the table? If it was all over tomorrow, what would you like to have achieved before you lose your sight and arm and time in this life to play? Now, does the idea of doing this sound meaningful to you? If you could do it today, would it make your heart race a little, or at least get you to forget your age for a minute and walk to the pool table with more pep than last practice session? If not keep digging! You can't force this. You have to finesse it and find what works as opposed to what you feel you ought to want.
For me it is easy. See, I've played a long time and play very well. But there are certain parts of my game weaker than average for a player of my level. Those weak links have always held me back. I've worked long and hard to compensate for them and have gotten farther than I thought I could. But I have always wanted to see what my game would look like if I plugged those leaks. I have an idea of how that game would look in terms of play, fargo rate, and tournament results. And dog gone it, I'd like to do that before it's over. That is what means something to me. That is what wakes up my inner beast. Anyone want to bet on whether I get there? I also want to be known as one of the best pool instructors in the world. Not for me, but because I want everyone to get a taste of how I feel when I play. It's a beautiful game and there's no reason not to play it beautifully. Enough of me. Back to you all.
For some they already have uncovered your true goals. Great. For others they may be ok not having any. Growth doesn't have to be important, if you enjoy spending time on the table playing the same level of the video game again once in a while that is totally fine as well.
But for those who have a burning desire for growth, or for those who have a burning desire to once again feel burning desire, I say get out the shovel and start digging. Don't assume you know your goals. Don't assume they are obvious. Life's too short to sit around or force yourself down dead end roads. Spent more time looking at where you've been trying to walk over the last stretch of your life, figure out what actually means something to you and throw the rest out. Lets-a-GO!
