SMART Goals

How to measure progress

Goals are essential when you’re trying to improve at something. But goals need to be chosen in a way that they are most useful. Saying “I want to get better at bridge this year” isn’t an effective goal, because it is so vague. “I want to improve my declarer play” is better—it’s a little more specific. But it’s still amorphous—how will I tell if I have gotten better?

There is a common acronym used in goal setting: SMART. It stands for:

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time-bound

So I want to set goals that meet all of these criteria. Some are simple: if they’re goals about bridge, they’re clearly going to be Relevant; I’m focusing on 2025, so there is a built-in Time schedule.

Achievable is tricky. You need to choose something ambitious enough that it’s a goal, but realistic enough that it doesn’t just serve as a frustration. I’m not going set a goal of winning the Bermuda Bowl this year. But it also can’t be something routine for me like making the second day of a two-day national pair event.

Specific and Measurable go hand-in-hand and are the most important of these goal criteria. Ideally, you want quantitative metrics that are easy to track. If I can do 10 pushups on January 1 and 15 pushups on February 1, I’ve clearly made progress.

It’s a little tricky with bridge. There are some easy ones—masterpoints is the most obvious—but they aren’t always a great indicator of expertise. You can track percentages—say, your average in robot tournaments or club games. I am mostly interested in time spent studying, and that is a goal that’s easy to measure.

It’s essential to track and reevaluate goals as you go. It’s often difficult to estimate what’s realistic when you get started. I plan to check in after the Spring and Summer NABCs and see how things are progressing. If I’ve already achieved some goals, great—I’ll adjust them to be more aggressive. If some goals seem unrealistic, I’ll adjust them down.

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So here are my goals for 2025.

Reading

I want to read at least one book a month, so at least 12 for the year. I’ll be discussing my reading list in the next post. I will post some thoughts and insights from each book as I finish it. I’m starting with a classic: Play Bridge with Mike Lawrence.

I also have a stack of Bridge World magazines I want to make a dent in, so I’m going to try to read one of those each month as well.

VuGraph

There’s no real way to measure this beyond time in front of the screen. I’m going to set a modest goal to start of one hour three times per week. I’d rather under-commit and adjust up than get frustrated by an unachievable goal. And as much as I’d like to hit the ground running, I know there will be a ramp-up period as I build these new habits.

Robots

IntoBridge’s Challenge game has a rating system, so this will be easy to measure. I want to make the rank of Ace. As I play more, I’ll probably develop some more specific goals.

BBO has a free weekly instant tournament and a monthly “Stars and Platinum” tournament I’d like to play in. I’m also setting up some challenge matches with other experts. I’m sure I’ll also play in some ACBL robot duplicates. I’ll set a goal of three of those a week for now and see how it goes.

Results

An obvious measure of how well you’re playing is your results. I’m focused on high-level competition, so I’m going to limit these goals to NABC+ events.

I have never made the round of 16 of one of the major knockouts—that’s a reasonable goal.

I’d like to make the final day of all five of the three-day NABC+ events: the Platinum Pairs, LM Pairs, Blue Ribbon Pairs, Reisinger, and Roth Swiss. That’s very ambitious—lots of good teams and pairs don’t make the finals of these events. So I’ll set a goal of three.

Winning another national championship would be great, but I’m going to aim for a more modest goal of three top-ten finishes in NABC+ events.

Masterpoints are a simple, if not entirely accurate, measure of success. I’m going to focus on Platinum points. To reach my other goals, I think I’d need to win at least 300 Platinum points. So I’m going to set the goal at 400.

Partnership

Greg and I plan to practice online twice per week. One session will be just us. We tend to use this time to bid the hands from The Bidding Box in the ACBL Bridge Bulletin.

We’re also going to try to play a match once per week with other experts. We’ll try to do this on a regular schedule, and we’ll stream it, so you’re invited to watch! And we’re always looking for expert opponents, so let me know if you’re interested.

Greg and I are going to start our 2025 practice schedule after we get home from the Hawaii Regional in February.

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So there it is. Specific, measurable goals for 2025.

• Read 12 bridge books

• Three hours of VuGraph study per week

• Make the rank of Ace on IntoBridge

• Three robot tournaments per week, plus challenges and free tournaments

• Round of 16 in the Spingold and/or Soloway (I’m not playing the Vanderbilt)

• Day 3 in at least three of the three-day NABC+ events

• Three top-ten finishes in NABC+ events

• 400 Platinum points

• Weekly practice with Greg

Just writing them down gives them weight and consequence. Sharing them adds accountability. I’m accountable to you. I encourage you to make your own list and share it with someone. You can post it here in the comments.