Goal setting is an important part of the college recruiting process both for your game as well as the recruiting process. The most important thing to remember is that a goal is useless unless you set a specific plan of action to achieve it.

  1. Set realistic goals – There is nothing wrong with wanting to reach for the stars but you want to give yourself goals that are realistically obtainable. If you aren’t able to reach your goals in a timely manner, you will easily lose sight of them and not work as hard towards achieving them.
  2. Set process goals, not just outcome goals – Set goals that you can accomplish in the present. When you put so much emphasis on results you forget to focus on what it takes to get there. Set your goals based on what you need to be doing NOW. The outcome will take care of itself if you commit to fully working towards it each day. Stay focused on what you can do in the present to reach what you want in the future.
  3. Goals need to have a deadline – Set a time frame for reaching your goals so that you will stay on track. This doesn’t have to be “I’m going to break 80 by the end of the year”. You only have so much control over what you shoot and how you finish during tournaments. You do have control over your practice routines, work ethic, motivation, focus, commitment and mental toughness. Make these your goals but set time frames that you are focused on. Also set goals for sending out intro emails, making phone calls and scheduling visits, this will help to insure you stay ahead of the game in regards to the recruiting process.
  4. Set goals for all areas of your life – Don’t just set goals about your golf game, set goals for personal life, academics, college recruiting, spiritual life, fitness and nutrition.
  5. Be specific about your goals – state exactly what you want to do, don’t just generalize.
  6. Make your goals something you really want, not just something you think is a good goal – Your goals need to be about what YOU want. While your parents obviously have a lot of say in what goes on in your life, your goals must still be about what it is that you want out of life. Your goals need to motivate you daily. You have to have a sense of urgency that makes you feel like “I have to get this done”.
  7. Always write positive goals, never in the negative tense
  8. Write them down where you can see them
  9. Set an action plan – an action plan consist of all the tasks required to reach a goal, put the tasks in order of importance
  10. For each goal, write why it is valuable to you and what makes it so important?