Planning Your Personal Development - Part VI, Making Your Plan

My previous columns recommended thoroughly analyzing your goals, assets, and liabilities. Those analyses were certainly not easy, but they should have clarified your conception of yourself and your potential: You now should know where you want to go and the factors that will help or hinder your progress.



If you haven't done those analyses, you can find the columns at CardPlayer.com. I recommend that you read them and do the exercises. Then, take three more steps:



1. Review your ultimate objective. The analysis of your assets and liabilities may have indicated that the objective you set in Part II was unattainable. If so, replace it with one that is ambitious enough to bring out your best, but is still achievable. What can you realistically expect to accomplish?



2. Review your intermediate goals. Even after setting a reasonable objective, many people try to move too quickly. Their impatience prevents them from building their bankroll or developing all of the qualities needed to reach their objective. Set a schedule that is challenging enough to stimulate you, but not so demanding that you can't meet it.



3. Decide how you will reach all of those goals. Clearly specify the steps you will take to build the bankroll and qualities needed for all your goals.



Review Your Ultimate Objective
Many players – including some mediocre ones – have told me that their ultimate objective is to become pros, even top tournament pros. Such objectives are often no more than childish dreams. When we're small, we may hope to become professional athletes, movie stars, singers, and perhaps even the president of the United States. Most of us outgrow those fantasies and set more realistic goals.



But many people never outgrow their dreams about poker. Luck lets them deceive themselves about how well they play and what they can accomplish. Poker looks so easy, especially on television (because the shows are edited). After seeing apparently weak players become overnight millionaires and celebrities, they think, "If he can do it, so can I."



Your objective should be more realistic. Thoroughly analyze the qualities needed to attain your objective, and then decide whether you can develop all of them. If you can't do it, set a more modest objective.



You also must accept an extremely unpleasant fact: You can't change much about yourself. Your genes and past experiences have limited what you can become. Reaching an overly ambitious objective may require impossibly large changes in your talents and personality.



• Knowledge is easy to acquire. You can get it from books, articles, DVDs, lectures, and seminars. Poker writers and players focus on knowledge, but it is not enough to reach ambitious objectives. Because of other factors, most people do not play remotely as well as they know how to play. For example, we all know better than to play weak hands and chase when our hand is probably beat, but nearly all of us make those mistakes.



• Skills are somewhat more difficult to improve. You need practice and feedback, but you can get them fairly easily. A coach or discussion group can help you with both your knowledge and skills.



• Personal traits are very hard or impossible to change. Unless you work very hard, you can't become much more patient, disciplined, or resistant to tilt, and hardly anything will make you more motivated.



• Situational factors vary enormously. You may be able to change your working hours or spending habits, but you probably can't do much about what your family thinks of poker.



• Most mental abilities are essentially unchangeable. You're stuck with what you've already got. Since you can't change them, pick games and situations that minimize the effects of your weaknesses. For example, if you have a poor short-term memory, play hold'em or Omaha instead of stud. If you can't play your A-game for more than a few hours, play short sessions of cash games and avoid multitable tournaments.



To summarize: Don't kid yourself about your abilities or what you will need to reach your objective. Accept and work within your limitations. Set an achievable objective, work on what you can improve, and find ways to compensate for the qualities you can't change.



Review Your Intermediate Goals
Intermediate goals should help you to progress toward your ultimate objective at a realistic pace. Countless people have failed to reach their full potential because they tried to do too much, too soon. To improve your chances of reaching your objective, I urge you to follow Barry Tanenbaum's general approach.



He is now a successful $30-$60 pro, coach, and Card Player columnist, but he did not reach that level overnight. He decided long ago to spend a great deal of time studying and discussing poker, and to move up only after hundreds of hours of winning play at many levels: $2-$4, $3-$6, $6-$12, $10-$20, $15-$30, and $20-$40.



He occasionally was tempted to skip a step, but he didn't do it. A few times, he moved up, lost, and moved back down. Then he analyzed what he had done wrong, rebuilt his bankroll, and moved up again. As his results, coaching practice, and columns show, his patience and careful planning have paid off.



Decide How You Will Reach All of Those Goals

You need more than a reasonable schedule. You must carefully plan the steps needed to acquire all of the necessary knowledge, skills, and other qualities. I'd like to discuss these steps, but can't do it in a short column. I will cover only two general principles:



• Commit enough resources to developing yourself.

You can't develop yourself fully without committing serious money and time. Buy books and DVDs, and if you have very ambitious objectives, hire a coach. Then make sure you get the full value for your money by spending a lot of time studying and discussing poker, and working on your personal weaknesses.



Most players are more willing to work on skills and knowledge than on their personal weaknesses. It's a reasonable choice. If you don't know how to play, you can't possibly win. However, if you have good knowledge and skills but are dissatisfied with your results, you should work on the personal weaknesses that are causing your problems.



You also should sacrifice some EV (expected value) by playing against tough players. Playing only in soft games will increase your immediate win rate, but will prevent you from reaching your full potential. If your goals are ambitious, you should occasionally play in games that are so tough that you lose money. That notion sounds like heresy, but Matt Lessinger stated it in his very first Card Player column: "I have played in games in which my EV was very clearly negative … [they] were learning experiences, and thus well worth the sacrifice. I was willing to pay my 'tuition' in order to get schooled." ("Less is Back for More," Card Player, June 6, 2003; Vol. 16/No. 12)



• Make self-development part of your routine
Time is an extremely limited resource. There are only 24 hours in a day, and most of them are committed to sleeping, working, eating, family obligations, playing poker, and so on. Developing yourself may be left for "when I have time for it," which often means that it doesn't get done at all.



Commit yourself to spending enough time each week on all of the developmental activities: studying the literature, discussing hands and strategy, and working on your personal weaknesses. If you don't commit to doing all of these activities, some of them will be neglected, especially the ones you dislike doing. In general, the more you dislike a developmental activity, the more you need to do it. For example, who needs exercise more, the naturally active person or the couch potato?



Many professions demand that members take continuing education courses. You can't keep your license as a physician, attorney, or psychologist without those courses. The authorities in those fields know that many people won't develop themselves unless they are forced to do so.



Poker doesn't have any formal requirements, but it is much more demanding than most professions. You get tested every night, and you pay dearly for your mistakes. Barry Tanenbaum calls it a "ruthless meritocracy." You can make a good living as a mediocre physician, lawyer, or psychologist, but you can't make one as a poker pro unless you are very, very good.



Since poker is constantly changing, and some of your opponents are working hard on themselves, your alternatives are brutally simple: You must either continue to develop yourself or fall behind the competition.



Dr. Schoonmaker ([email protected]) coaches only on psychology issues, such as controlling impulses, coping with losing streaks, going on tilt, and planning your poker career.