Goal Setting

Have you ever wondered how to achieve what you set out to do? What is the best path to reach your goals? How can you stay focused on the necessary steps to get there? Today, I will try to provide you with some tools to answer these questions.

Learning the Sicilian, beating that opponent, or increasing your ELO rating by 20 points are all goals that we often set for ourselves, and that motivate us. Motivation plays an important role in mobilising our willpower and directing our energy and attention towards a specific aim, and thus, our goals represent the necessary steps in order to move forward in that direction.

Nowadays, much attention is paid to how goals should be formulated, and you may have heard of the ‘SMART’ acronym as a tool to assist in this process. This framework suggests that goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound. However, even if you understand and apply this concept, you may still wonder, “Now what? How do I actually achieve these goals?

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Therefore, let’s focus on how to facilitate the process of goal setting in a way that is clear and helps us in the process of achieving what we search for.

The ‘SMART’ acronym, besides how useful it is, does not explain anything regarding the type of goal that we set. Therefore, here is where another tool is needed. All the examples mentioned above have in common that they are the result of an event: they are merely the end goal of what we desire. Hence, these goals are named outcome goals. However, aside from not telling us anything regarding the path to follow, another inconvenience arises: Is it entirely within our control to reach them? Do we feel confident in achieving them?

Let’s use the example of increasing our ELO rating by 20 points in the next tournament. As we well know, achieving this goal is dependent on the results we obtain in our games, where we compete against other players. As we can only control how we play and not our opponents, we cannot guarantee the final outcome. That lack of control, combined with the fact that outcome goals without a plan can fell like nothing more than a mere wish, can lead to a decrease in our confidence to achieve them. Thus, it becomes important to establish other types of goals that can assist us along the way.

Right here is where an informal tool known as a tree of goals can come in handy, helping us to root our desired outcome goal. To do this, we add performance goals and process goals. Let’s use the previous example to understand how the procedure works.

We will begin by setting performance goals to facilitate the visualisation of the tree. Nevertheless, after learning this tool, you might find it simpler to start with the process goals. We will see both options and afterwards, is your choice. Performance goals are the product of performance in itself, thus, they are relatively independent of others. They are goals that mainly depend on our own actions and efforts. Let’s see an example.

 Thanks to chess engines, nowadays we have an accesible tool to measure our over-the-board performance easily. Let’s imagine that by using “Let’s Check Analysis” (so popular lately), our average is 45. Therefore, we could propose ourselves to play at a 50 level so we can increased our ELO.

 Moreover, let’s imagine the tournament in question is a round-robin. As we know our opponents we can know precisely how many points are needed to increase those 20 ELO points, let’s say 6 in 9. Therefore, we can set a tournament plan where we will try to win our 4 games with white and draw our 4 games with black, giving ourselves the chance to lose 1 game to be realistic. As a more specific alternative, we could design a plan aiming for certain results according to our opponents’ strength. Even though this plan is not entirely under our control, a goal like this already puts the intention in a more controllable way of playing, a plan.

 However, as we have seen, some of these goals may not be entirely under your control. Therefore, let’s delve a bit deeper: What specific actions would you take to achieve those 6 points? This is where process goals come in.

Knowing your own gameplay, which actions do you believe are necessary for playing at a level necessary for accomplishing the desired result? What should you have in mind during to tournament in order to achieve it? Process goals are merely the processes you will be focussing on during performance. You must consider not only elements in relation to chess technique, performance is also based on physical, psychological and even social factors.

Let’s continue with our example. As we already established a tournament plan in our performance goals, a simple process goal that arises would be “Follow my tournament plan”. Now is where our interweaving of the goal tree starts. A performance goal has a related process goal.

Let’s set a psychological goal. If you tend to experience high levels of anxiety before rounds, you could aim to “Manage pre-round nerves effectively”. You can achieve this through meditation or controlled breathing exercises throughout the day leading up to the round. However, this is material for a future article.

After placing our goal on the appropriate column, let’s go a step further. Knowing this weakness in our game and having in mind the progress in regard to anxiety control, which performance goal would you set? How would you think about in numeric terms?

As an example, you could set a goal to arrive at 7 out of 9 rounds calmer than usual. This would be an achievable yet challenging goal. Alternatively, You could aim for a more practical goal, such as doing 2 relaxation sessions before each round. Therefore, the process goal of “Manage pre-rounds nerves effectively” will have two related performance goals: “Achieve a calmer state before 7 out of 9 rounds” and “Complete 2 relaxation sessions before each round.”

In summary, here we also look how the inverse process occurs: the process goals generates related performance goals. In our interweaving of the goal’s tree, both path are possible and make the task of setting goals easier. How to approach it is your decision.

In this manner you could continue to establish goals that you find relevant for achieving your desired performance in the tournament. In relation to chess you could think about “Play more aggressive openings” or “Have a better time management”. In the physical department you could consider goals related to rest, exercise or nutrition. Finally, in the psychological field you have concentration, self-talk, or confidence as some alternatives.

Lastly, in the goal’s tree there is no need for goals to be always related to another column. As we have an independent performance goal related to the ‘Let’s Check Analysis’ we could also set an independent process goal such as “Maintain focus and confidence despite an unexpected defeat.”

There you have it. Our goal’s tree for the next tournament. Now it’s clear how the initial idea “Increase 20 ELO points in the next tournament” have more concise steps into achieving it. It is not a sole idea anymore but a series of goals and actions to focus on in order to have a higher success probability.

One last question in relation to our goals: what do you find more feasible “Increase 20 ELO points in the next tournament” or to have a tournament plan, an adaptive response to losses and a good management of our anxiety?

Clearly, it may look more tedious to do all the set process goals, however, as they depend solely on yourself, one has more control and confidence in being able to achieve them. As a result, the control and confidence categories in relation to goals are distributed as follows:

Despite this fact, it is equally important to set outcome goals. Your biggest motivation could come from achieving the established 20 ELO points and in case you do achieve them, it will bring you more satisfaction than achieving the set process goals.

Without setting an excessive number of goals, I have found that a more comprehensive tree provides players with a greater sense of preparation and confidence. By considering various aspects of performance, one can reduce potential obstacles and anxiety. Using all three types of goals is essential since each has its own benefits. As we have seen, interweaving them deepens our commitment and increases the likelihood of achieving them.

Unfortunately, this is not the end of the story. After proposing a goal tree, there is still much to do, including deciding on and developing strategies and tools to achieve each of the proposed goals. However, I hope this article provides you with a clearer idea of the different types of goals and assists you in the initial stage of goal setting.