As we all ring in the New Year I’m sure many of you have set some goals/resolutions for yourself. A new year feels like the start of something fresh, a time to change bad habits, a time to commit to being a better you. The majority of people will set an outcome goal they want to reach (lose weight, eat better, work less, work harder, spend less, etc…). They become so focused on the outcome, i.e. the future, that they forget about the process and what they must commit to doing each day to reach those goals.

I love this article by Train to be Clutch’s Joshua Medcalf, “Burn your goals to become the person of your dream“. He says “I want to see your commitment list. I want to know what you are committed to sacrificing and doing with your 24 hours a day to close the gap between where you are at, and where you want to be.” Mic Potter, my college coach, use to get frustrated with me because I never wanted to set goals for myself. I didn’t realize it at the time, that by not setting goals and instead focusing on what I needed to do everyday, I was actually more productive with my practice and time. I didn’t get wrapped up in expectations and outcomes. Even Coach Potter admitted in my Hall of Fame letter that I taught him some new ways to look at coaching because of the different outlook I had on my golf game.

So this New Year make a better effort to focus on the things you can control. The day in and day out activities that will get you where you want to be. You can’t control the outcome. Many things can influence the outcome that are out of your control. You could have the best round of your life on the final day of a tournament and somebody else play one shot better and beat you. If your goal was to win the tournament then you would feel like you were a failure, but if instead your goal was to commit to every shot, keep a positive attitude and stay focused on the present then you would have walked away feeling like a winner. So with everything you do this year, make a plan with specific process goals that you can complete every day. Dreams are great, they are what drive you to commit and sacrifice day in and day out, but if you focus so much on your dream you will lose sight of what is important, the present!