Whatsup everyone! I wanted to show you all something that sparks particular interests in myself, and a strategy that many professional athletes utilize in order to be active in maintaining at the top spots in their particular sports. Constant improvement and effort is needed to succeed in profesional athletics so goal setting is vital. In athletics everyone has the physical size and skills, but not all have the mental one up that goal setting can give them.These concepts like goal setting are from sports psychology, which is a faction of positive psychology. The awesome thing about sports psychology is that it can be applied to motivated everyday people who want to achieve what they want in life!

The topic is GOAL SETTING!

With New Years coming up I want to hopefully help some people follow through on their dreams and desires! How many times have you made A New Years Resolution or a goal in general and not followed through? Or simply lost motivation to pursue the goal that you just made for yourself? Maybe you even forgot, or gave up. You said you were going to go out three times a week and instead you head out three times a month! Maybe that ten pounds on your gut or new bench press record is still just stagnating! This is annoying, but happens to everyone! Why though! I would argue that it is not because you are lacking in drive, motivation, and confidence; you just lack the knowledge of how to implement proper goal setting. The best pros' all do it, so why don't you? If you're interested check it out and see if you can gain some value/knowledge/ whatever from it. These are my notes structured from a whole semester in a Sports Psychology class. With personal reserach, lectures and talks to my professor, who had a PHD in Sports Psychology. If success intrigues you, it could be worth your time.

First off The Baseline Definitions: there are three types of Goals:

1) Outcome- these goals focus on the outcome IE- Winning a championship, or winning a game. In pickup it would be like only going out and Approaching one ten and fucking her! Only the 10, no one else! AND only having sex or all is failed!!! You only hit up the club up for sex, not to have fun, meet people, etc etc! Overall you are focused on outcome and not process- THESE GOAL ARE NOT EFFECTIVE. This is because you are not being involved in task orientation while also indulging the ego orientation. AVOID you will have no control(locus of control) over accomplishing this goal. You can try your best to win the championship, but sometimes it just doesnt always work......Just ask LeBron..... You can try and pull a girl from the club to bang, but sometimes it just is not going to work! All is not failed though and you are not a failure. Just setting the wrong goals.

2) Performance- These goals focus on improving the end product of your performance and are independent of other performers. So a possible goal would be going from averaging 6 rebound a game to 9 by the end of the season. Or instead of going out two times a week; make it four by the end of the month. Approach five girls every night instead of two. Make two new friends at the club instead of zero. Unstiffle yourself 3 times at the club instead of once. You guys know the deal. This is a highly effective strategy of goal setting. IMPLEMENT. These work because the improvement is in your own hands. You effort leads to success in these goals. You have the control of wether or not you want to achieve these things. If you don't achieve these goals, it is your own fault and lack of effort.

3) Process- These goals focus on specific behaviors throughout a performance. IE: Keep left elbow straight while swinging a gold club. Make sure you are projecting your voice and not being a needy chode while talking to a girl. Make sure to be keep strong eye contact and be a boss. Keep your elbow up on your free throws. Have your center of gravity towards your hips if you like Alex's stuff. Maintain a dominant vibe during female male interactions. These work good, but there is a paradox within this type of goal setting(This mostly pertains to athletics, but also a little to Pickup)...A process goal might actually interfere with the smooth execution of a well learned skill. Say your a very advanced guy who is used to banging chicks regularly from clubs using your own tried and true unique style. Your style WORKS and gets you laid, awesome! But maybe before you hit the club you watch a video of Julien's. While you're doing your usual thing with a chick all of a sudden you remember to call her a dog to spike emotions. "Your a dog". Since it is a new skill you do not know how to utilize it well and it comes off totally inconguent. BAM bad reaction, you dont know how to respond, your in your head, set dies, Blowout.This is not a bad thing UNLESS you are in a competitve on-the-stakes setting, like an NBA championship, or a small exclusive get together at a club where you were invited and have a lot of peoples' eyes on you. At that venue you are trying to make friends and not blow potential business partners, connections, or people you will see regularly. The outcome is neccesary for your success. It would be like if before game 7 of the NBA Championship you decide to adjust your perfectly fine three point shot, and try your new technique out all game. Not a good idea!!!! You do not have the practice and motor development behind it to have success! A better place for process goals than small venues would be a poppin club or bar where you dont give a rat's ass about outcome(which should generally be your state). Then you should go for it! If you do decide to Implement one of these goals though, your attention should be on the holistic process(flow) and not focusing on the body part. Focusing on that specific process will take the put you into your head and take away FLOW. So practice is a non threatening/ no worries enviroment. Ie any busy club, bar, daygame in a big city.

So Overall Focus on Performance Goals and Process goals. Never Outcome Goals

Goal Setting is effective because it: 1)consistently directs your attention to achievement of that goal, 2) it helps to make sure your effort is mobilized and directed towards goal achievement, 3)you develop persistance which enables you to constantly put effort into succeeding if you want to achieve that goal, 4) You develop new learning strategie which forces you to learn new and better ways of accomplishing that goal,skill, or task, 5) You can increase positive affect.

Here is the meat and potatoes: THE 8 PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE GOAL SETTING

1) Make Specific and not general goals. A general goal is along the lines of "Im just going to do my best!" These goals should be measurable and observable. It enable you to have structure and accountability.
2) Set performance(improvement) or Process goals; not outcome.
3) Set challenging (moderatly difficult) but realistic goals. So about a 50% chance of success and a 50% chance of failure. Studies show that too dificult of goals leads to burnout, so be realistic. If it is incredibly difficult you better put the effort in and be task/process oriented.
4) Use Short-range goals to achieve long-range goals. Always be taking steps towards your long term goals. They will not just randomly be achieved.
5) CLEARLY IDENTIFY the TIME CONSTRAINTS of your goal achievement. Hold yourself accountable, or your goal will just slip away." I have ten days to go to five clubs." or "I have one week to get ten approaches!"
6) Regularly Moniter progress: write down your goals, adjust if they are too easy or too difficult. "I had ten approaches by day three, make that 20 approaches for this week."
7) Set practice as well as competition goals. A good analogy would be a small venue that you frequent regularly (a compeition) vs a huge club in Vegas where you can get away with anything(practice). A small bar with ten people in Oregon might be a good place to work on your cool and friendly state to get day 2's and make friends/connections. While at Vegas you might go full beastmode with quick results, physical escaltion and lots of blowouts.
8) Make sure your goals are internalized. You are committed.

The SMART Principle.... Goals Should be:
Specific S
Measurable M
Action-Oriented A
Realistic R
Timely T

The Planning and Evaluation of Your Goals
1) Conduct a needs assessment to determine areas that need improvement. -More Approaches, more clubs, less drinks a night?
2) How Will you implement this plan and reflect on your past goals. - What steps are needed to achieve this goal? Why did I not have success with my past goals?
3) Conduct goal achievement evaluations after each competition and practice. -Go home and look at your goal list and see how you did after a night out. Did you achieve your goals? Why or Why not? What should you improve on? Are your goals too easy or hard?

There it is! My little write up on how to achieve your dreams. I don't know how many people will read it, but if it helps only one person achieve their goals, that is good enough for me. I might start doing weekly write ups on these kinds of topics that I learn in sports psychology, because it relates PERFECTLY to self development and "pickup." Know that New Years should not be the only time you set goals! A fullfilling life is a constant game of improvement and movement towards your dreams.