How to Achieve Your Golf Goals in 2025
It’s that time of year again! Time for a fresh start and creating a new, better, happier you in 2025.
Most people set goals every year, but because these goals and New Year’s resolutions rely too much on willpower alone, they often fade and we quickly lose the motivation we had at the beginning of January.
Having been a Performance Coach for over 15 years I’ve seen it all, and through my experience, I’ve been able to formulate a system based on what I’ve seen work and what I’ve seen fail. It’s sustained motivation and effort over a longer period of time which achieves goals, so you have to use a system that changes habits and develops skills gradually. I’ve turned this email into an audio, so if you are an app subscriber, you’ll find it in the “Weekly Lessons”.
My 7 Step Goal Setting System
Step 1: Decide on your Goals
What are your top 3 big goals for 2025? Let’s not settle for ordinary, pick goals that will make this year extraordinary. Be very clear about what you want to achieve. Clear goals get clear results, blurry goals get mixed results.
Step 2: Figure out “Why?”
For each goal, write down why you want to achieve it. Big goals require a lot of sacrifices, discipline and struggle, so your “why” has to be big enough to keep you going. Why do you want to dedicate your precious time to achieving that goal? What is the pay-off? Imagine how it will feel to achieve those goals and see if that feeling is strong enough to motivate you to put in the work throughout the year.
Step 3: Know The Obstacles
What will hold you back from your goals? You know yourself better than anyone else. What fears and limiting beliefs will you have to overcome? What about your life right now will you have to change and what sacrifices will you have to make? E.g., Time doing other things, less sleep, less time on your phone/watching TV, etc.
Step 4: Define “The New You”
Write down the new version of you at the end of 2025 – the thinking, behaviors and skills you will have developed to attain your goals and overcome the obstacles in your way. What will life be like without your current fears and limiting beliefs? Decide which new habits are going to have the greatest impact in you becoming this new version of you. E,g., getting up earlier, daily meditation, a more disciplined schedule and plan, eating better, being fitter, reducing alcohol consumption, etc. Write down all your improved thinking, behaviors and skills in the present tense.
Step 5: Set out your Plan
“A goal without a plan is just a wish” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Start small and build up. The key to sustained motivation and improvement is to make small changes over a longer period, rather than trying to do too much quickly. E.g. If you’re going to start meditating to increase self awareness and be more present, start with 5 min sessions 3 times a week and build up to 10-15 min sessions 4-5 times a week over a couple of months. Instead of saying you’re going to read a book each month, set yourself the goal of 10 pages per day.
In my mental game training program (link), I have several worksheets that will help you create your plan. Keep your weekly plan where you can see it and cross the tasks off as you go. There’s research that shows that the sense of accomplishment (by crossing off tasks) increases motivation and energy.
Step 6: Visualize and Feel It Daily
Willpower will only get you so far, you need to create a deep emotional connection with your goals and how you want to change every day with daily mental imagery. In my app I have a daily guided meditation to help you with this. Use your definition in Step 4 to visualize how you will think, feel and act when you are who you want to be. See this new version of you vividly to change from within and live it daily.
Step 7: Keep a Journal
I help my players break their goals down into 90 day cycles (4 goal cycles per year). Starting at day 90, they write their big goals down every morning, along with their short term (90 day) goals for Mental, Technical and Physical in the present tense. E.g., I am a Division 1 golfer, I hit 14 greens on average, I have a swing speed of 100mph. At the end of the day, they write down everything they did towards their mental, technical and physical goals in that day. This keeps them accountable and mindful of how they are spending their time. They also have to write about the struggles they faced and what the solution is – you are going to learn something about your approach and yourself every day. Continue to develop a growth mindset and look at struggles without judgement.
Just like the approach I’ve taught you for your rounds of golf, measure each day by your “internal scorecard” and whether you were able to give it your best by being disciplined, mentally tough, etc., rather than the output. Remember that achieving great things is about making small gains every day (that you can’t see) that compound over time into noticeable change.
I wish you an incredible 2025! Thank you for supporting Golf State of Mind in 2024, it’s great to be able to share what I’ve learned (and continue to learn) with you.
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