Setting goals is scary!

Setting goals can be scary. What if I do not achieve the goal? Am I a failure? I don’t want to anyone to know my goals in case I do fail.

Those thoughts are detrimental to not only your shooting career, but your life. I’m not going all Stuart Smalley self-affirmation on you here, but do want to be honest. One great quote always bouncing around in my brain from Henry Ford, “Whether you think you can or whether you think you cannot, you’re right.”

I believe that I will be a Master class shooter in USPSA and with hard work, it will happen.

See how easy that is? Nothing diabetic sweet or delusional in that comment. I write that down every morning. Setting goals is the foundation of achievement.

So, how do I set goals? Looking at shooting, it is dependent on what I want to achieve. Let’s look at dry fire with an emphasis on speed and use El Prez as the example.

Total time for drill – Par time 4.0 seconds. Thoroughly review which skills are tested in El Prez.

1. Turning Draw

2. Splits

3. Transitions

4. Reload

Going further down the rabbit hole, in this drill we have 1 turning draw, 4 transitions, 10 splits, and 1 reload. Timing splits in dry fire is impossible, so put those aside (don’t forget to verify them in live fire though!).

Breaking down the times to reach 4.0 seconds requires a .9 second draw, .2 splits and transitions, and a reload of about 1.1. Now that you know the required time for each specific skill set, practice each one individually.

Pretty easy analysis, huh? It is that easy for most any drill and classifiers too!

Back to my personal goal overview. I'm now shooting single stack which does not have any local heat, sort of sucks. But I now compare the overall results to mark my progression. Yeah, it's tough to compare 8/10 round division to limited (20 rounds) or open (30 rounds) but it's happening. I'm now compared to divisions which should beat me hands down, but they're not! Sounds silly but I get joy from the thought of beating them and then making it happen.

My match goals have become simple: The only goal at a match to execute my stage plans and leave only acceptable hits on target. There is no more worry or thought on time, points, where I'll finish in the division, or how I compare to Joe Bob.

Practice goals are more detailed, broken down into macro and micro goals. Right now, I’m working on speed, raw badass speed!

I could go into the details and goal times but many great books and digital media have been produced by the likes of Ben Stoeger and Steve Anderson for pure USPSA shooting and then in the mental management & goal setting Zig Ziglar and Lanny Bassham publications.

At the end of the day it comes down to the goal setting approach you are comfortable with. Keep it in a personal log to which you have the only access and the knowledge of or be like me, post it for the open world to see. I’ve found it helps my motivation stay constant by telling the world what I’m going to accomplish.

Now go forth! Set goals and accomplish!