Goals vs. Dreams for 2014

I think Tom Marchese summed up my feelings about poker goals very aptly:

The tendency is to make goals that don’t really equate to being goals— they are actually wishes and hopes, and it was something I’ve been guilty of in past years.

I just had a talk with Wilbur about how this is not a real goal for 2014:

Now don’t mistake me for Scrooge after Christmas has passed—I am a big supporter of positive thinking and how that helps in many ways to enable us to get higher in our aspirations. Perhaps it is simply a difference of semantics, where I think of things out of my control as hopes/wishes versus goals that I have the complete option of achieving if I only push myself.

Of course I have some big hopes for what 2014 brings for me in terms of poker: I want to win the $55 Women’s Sunday, the Sunday Million, and the WCOOP Main Event….but those aren’t goals because they amount to many things that I don’t have control over.

For the most part, I can control the number of tournaments I play, and how frequently I study. I think focusing on what you can control to give you the highest chance of reaching your dreams is the best way to go. For example, I told Wilbur that he might get more steaks if he stopped pulling me around like a rag doll when I walk him!

For 2013 I had a goal of playing 15,000 tournaments and hitting Supernova. I played over 23,000 tournaments and hit Supernova soon after I dressed up as one for Halloween:

In 2014 I want to hit at least 200k VPPs and play over 30,000 tournaments…and come up with another super corny Halloween costume!

One goal for last year that I failed to achieve outside of poker was writing a Young Adult book. I made the mistake of not specifically planning how I was going to do it, and I didn’t set aside enough time to complete it (often in favor of playing poker). Instead of a completed manuscript, I have about 20,000 words and a better idea of how to specifically outline my goals in 2014.

Best of luck to everyone on achieving their goals, hopes, wishes, and dreams for 2014!

Wilbur is getting a steak to celebrate New Year’s Eve tonight so maybe all of our poker dreams will come true after all!