In this article I will explain how committing to an effective goal set-ting programme can help you to realise your golfing ambitions.

Most of us are great at setting goals. Unfortunately we tend to be less successful at achieving these goals! In my experience this is often because they are unrealistic, too vague, or take too long to achieve.

Achievement in your golf will largely depend on three basic factors:

1. Being specific about what you want to achieve.

2. Being clear about the sacrifices you will have
to make to get what you are aiming for.

3. Being prepared to make those sacrifices.

Doing the first two is easy!
Being prepared to actually make the sacrifices is the hard part.

Completing a goal setting plan will give you a clearer idea of what you want to achieve and how you plan to go about it. Goal setting plans allow you to decide what you want to achieve long term, and then create a plan that allows you to move step by step towards the achievement of the long term goal through the achievement of short term goals. Long term goals are your destination. Short term goals are your map of how to get there! If you don´t know where you are going - you could end up somewhere else!

There are three types of goals that you can set and they are interlinked:

• OUTCOME GOALS
  

• PERFORMANCE GOALS PROCESS GOALS

• PROCESS GOALS

OUTCOME GOALS
can be highly motivating and are important to set because they are concerned with the end results or ambitions. For example: To win a specific event.
Outcome goals are generally most effective in the long term - they give you a clear direction about where you want to go and can be the inspira-tion that drives you.

However it is important to acknowledge that these goals are not wholly controlled by you. For example, you can play your best ever golf at a competition and not win because the other competitors also play well. If you always set out-come goals, it is possible for your confidence to be dented often.

PERFORMANCE GOALS
are largely within your control, they are usually personal standards or targets of performance you set yourself: "Dropping 2 shots from your handicap".

Performance goals are most effective in the medium term - they are the targets that keep you on track to achieve your long-term ambitions and also give you a sense of achievement along the way. Performance goals provide a vital stepping-stone to achieving your outcome goals.

PROCESS GOALS
are about the detail, they relate to the processes that you need to control if you are going to achieve your performance and outcome goals: "To complete one long game and three short game, 45 minute quality practice sessions every week".

Process goals are important because they aid the achievement of your performance and outcome goals by helping you to focus on the way that you need to perform rather than the desired outcome. The process is how you get to the endpoint. Process goals are most effective in the short term.