Set Realistic Expectations Or Set The Bar High

Do you sometimes feel that your goals are a little too conservative? Or maybe you consistently find that you have overestimated your potential and set the bar just a bit too high?

If you find that you consistently set your goals either too high or too low then this would indicate that you could do with making an adjustment to your goal setting strategy. Inevitably, there will be times when it pays to be conservative in your expectations whilst at other times you need to set the bar at a higher notch so as to focus your mind and raise your game.

Most of us appreciate the wisdom of setting high standards and goals. If you do not try you do not generally get. But there are exceptions to this rule. It is possible to bite off rather more than you can chew, and if you were to do this over and over again it would feed a belief that you cannot do things.

Ideally goals should be "realistic + a bit more". If you do not stretch for more you do not allow yourself the opportunity to achieve your highest potential. But if you set yourself a goal that is way off of the scale, then you are almost certainly setting yourself up for failure.

Let’s take this concept about goal setting and apply it to the game of golf. I like to use golf as an example because this game teaches a player many lessons about life in general.

Every goal should be broken down into bite sized chunks; pieces that you can digest without difficulty. In golf you see many beginners who will try shots that a more advanced player would know are almost impossible. Usually, as a golfer progresses they will adapt their playing strategy and err on the side of conservative play more often.

But you will see golfers with a club in their hand that they are not comfortable with. They will take their 3 wood out of the bag when they have no idea of how to control it and the wayward direction in which their ball flies is a source of frustration, disappointment and failure for them.

In contrast a golfer who has more realistic expectations based on their known ability might be a lot better off using their 7 iron and just hitting it down the middle of the fairway a couple of times. In point of fact you will frequently see in club golf that a more senior player plays golf the most consistently and wins most often.

Senior players have the reputation of hitting the ball straight down the middle; a shorter shot but down the middle. They are realistic about their expectations and they know they no longer have the muscle of a younger person. Their expectations are congruent with their ability and they experience success on a frequent basis. They do not set themselves up for failure by trying inappropriate clubs or shots.

There is a time however in a golfers life when to set the bar higher is massively important. When you have mastered a fair degree of control over your clubs and have the ability to hit the ball squarely on a reasonably consistent basis you have reached an appropriate time to unleash your dreams and aim for the stars.

This is the time when your goals, your expectations and your mental focus will lead your game and raise it to the highest level. You have to use your mind to dial in your focus, to become more creative in shot making and to find a way in which to win. If you do not use your mind to lead your golf you will just hit the ball around randomly and sometimes got lucky and other times you will not.

Those senior golfers are in reality still using their minds to lead their golf. They are playing golf within their physical abilities, applying their golf focus…and winning because younger golfers aren't using their minds as well as they might!

Roseanna Leaton, avid golfer and specialist in golf hypnosis mp3s and author of the GolferWithin golf mind training system.