New Year's Resolutions? No Way!

I have never been a fan of New Year's resolutions; in fact I have never set one. The reason for this is the negative connotations that New Year's resolutions have for. All my life I have heard people setting them only to fail and that is not something I want to be a part of. Instead I prefer to have intentions for the coming year. While this may be just a change of phrase I feel it gives me and anyone else who wants to try this a far higher chance of succeeding.

Here are my golfing intentions for the next year, this is not supposed to be a complete list of everything I want to do in golf during the next year but it is the main points. In general I want my intentions be to do something rather than to avoid something because I know my mind will respond better to a positive instruction. I have not included reaching a handicap of zero on this list because that is my main goal. My intentions are different from goals; I have set intentions as things I want to do to help me achieve my goal.

• I intend to practice 5 times per week. This has to be at the top of the list because I know I cannot reach my goal this year without a lot of practice. At the moment I manage this some weeks but not others so the aim is really to bring consistency to the quantity of my practice.

• I intend to practice distance wedge shots at least twice per week. I define distance wedges as between 50 yards and around 135 yards which is a full swing distance for my pitching wedge. On almost every par 5 and on many par 4s I have shots of this length into the green so becoming proficient at these shots will give me more realistic birdie chances which in turn will lead to lower scores.

• I intend to play more competitions than in 2015. The open competitions I played during 2015 were the rounds during which I learnt the most about my game so I want to play more competitions in 2016. While I hope I can perform well and possibly get near winning some of these competitions that is not the main intention. My aim is simply to improve my game through playing more events so my focus will not be on results.

• I intend to become confident with every club in my bag. At times during 2015 I tried to avoid hitting certain clubs which is something I plan to change in 2016. I am sure almost all golfers can relate to this; how many people do you know that carry a club they never hit? I remember hitting my driver on certain holes this year purely because I was lacking confidence in my 3 wood and hybrids. Whether I need to do more than just practice with every club to become confident with all my clubs I will find out during the coming months and address if it is an issue.

I have tried to focus on the process here rather than the result. I intend to practice my distance wedges rather than become the best wedge player in the world for example. I do this because I know that focusing on the process helps me achieve the best results I can. I also make sure that I am not depriving myself of something because that is setting myself up for failure. If you want to give something up I would recommend intending to replace it with something instead of just removing it. This is another simple trick that can increase your chance of success.

Looking at my list of intentions might look the same as looking at a list of New Year's resolutions but it is subtly different. I think the key difference is by setting intentions you can get away completely from all the negative connotations resolutions have. Some statistics suggest only 8% of New Year's resolutions are successful; after reading something like that I feel like I have no chance.

Why not try skipping New Year's resolutions this year and instead set some intentions for the coming year? You may be surprised at the success you achieve!