Tommy Angelo

Posted by Alan Bostick on January 1st, 2010 at 9:58 am:

How about setting the bar a little lower, aiming for a goal of simply being aware whenever you set yourself a goal, saying to yourself, “Hmmm, that’s a goal,” and in so taking note, letting go of it?

Posted by weau on January 1st, 2010 at 10:09 am:

The kitchen is open.

Posted by Rich Grunenwald on January 1st, 2010 at 10:32 am:

A friend of mine is in a band named “Last Chance at Failure”. They made up their name based on the premise that if they weren’t successful this time around, they would give up.

For some reason, this post made me think of it.

Posted by Piotr on January 1st, 2010 at 12:13 pm:

Humans cannot live goalless lives – the concept of not setting any goals is actually a goal in itself… see how it works? :)

Posted by Anonymous on January 2nd, 2010 at 5:12 pm:

In all seriousness: you should look up Andrew Cohen. He’s the only person I’ve met who can make perfect sense of the dual/paradoxical nature of the two dimensions of our world: being (nothingness) and becoming (directionality).

Posted by Tommy Angelo on January 2nd, 2010 at 5:34 pm:

“In all seriousness: you should look up Andrew Cohen.”

Thank you. I will.

Posted by Spike The Cat on January 3rd, 2010 at 12:58 pm:

It will get easier. As you age your short-term memory will fade and you will live more and more successfully in the moment, having forgotten the goals you never set.

Posted by Ron Heywood on January 13th, 2010 at 5:15 pm:

Maybe your definition of the moment can be redefined.

Given that you have become mindful of a commitment to keep. Your “moment” can expend to include the period of time it will take to meet that commitment.

Be it:

A: 10 minutes to write and publish the post,
or
B: 3 hours to discover that your laptop power supply blew up, contact a repair guy find out the part needs ordering, phone a friend drive to their house and borrow their machine, write and publish the post.

And if B sounds onerous, consider the myriad of discreet actions required to complete task A. And once you have broken task A down into all the power button pressing window opening keyboard tapping, consider all the synaptic chains, nerve impulses muscle movements.

You moment can contain as much as is necessary for you to be mindful of something you can categorise as the thing you are mindful of.

Posted by Tommy Angelo on January 13th, 2010 at 6:14 pm:

“Your “moment” can expend to include the period of time it will take to meet that commitment.”

Nice. I’m going to incorporate that.

Posted by Martin on February 1st, 2010 at 2:06 pm:

What about setting goals for poker? :)

No monthly/yearly goal setting, e.g. “My goal is to make $2000 in February 2010 in cash games”?

No keeping score? No bankroll management?

I’ve been “raised” with setting goals and praticing strict bankroll management, but it would actually be a relief not to. Just to play with my mind beeing free of the money department and just focusing on making decisions and paying attention to the table.

Posted by Martin on February 1st, 2010 at 2:07 pm:

So my question is: How do one apply this mindset to poker?

Posted by Tommy Angelo on February 2nd, 2010 at 12:30 pm:

“I’ve been “raised” with setting goals and praticing strict bankroll management, but it would actually be a relief not to. Just to play with my mind beeing free of the money department and just focusing on making decisions and paying attention to the table.”

Then try it! Think of it as an experiment. Allow yourself to go a day of playing poker without it being part of any of your short or long range goals. And if that feels good, do it another day. Or a month. Whatever. You said the magic words, “It would be a relief to.”

Do you think you will suddenly go broke by giving yourself this relief? I don’t either. Give it a whirl. I went goalless at poker long ago and it was a major and awesome course correction. It’s definitely not for everyone. That’s why the best thing for you might be to experiment in small doses at first, just to make sure you don’t get too high. :-)

Posted by Andrea Watson on July 9th, 2010 at 12:18 am:

Goal setting is very important specially if you want to plan long term.’~.

Posted by Millie Wood on July 20th, 2010 at 7:50 pm:

Goal setting is very important if you want something to be done in a short period of time.~,”