how long do u plan on playing?

[Boobie Lover]

Very good post, and I agree with all points. I'll just add also that monetary goals may allow a person to bcome lackadaisical and start to make excuses for his/her play because he/she hit that one monetary goal.

[Dodoubled]

Point taken, and respected. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the whole idea here is making money is a byproduct of playing good poker over a long period of time.
But that said, how is setting a monetary goal (and working the right way at it) any different than a golfer saying, "I'm going to fix the flaws in my stroke and cut my handicap by five strokes this summer?" All the golfer's doing here is setting a tangible, measurable goal that he can reach for. Now, if he goes about it the right way, practices the right way, he'll do it and he'll reap the rewards of a more consistent game. He'll still have his off days, and weeks, even, but his game will succeed in the end. But if he gets lazy and goes about it the wrong way, his game will be erratic. He may have a few rounds where he shoots well and does lower his handicap, but overall, his game will suffer, and he'll carry around a bogus number. And when he plays in tournaments and starts dishing out strokes to legit higher handicappers, he'll be exposed for the fraud he is.
That's why I don't think setting a monetary goal is such a bad thing. I completely understand your point, Boobie, and agree with much of it. But I think it has more to do with the person than the goal itself. I think setting the goal is one thing, but the way a person approaches it speaks a lot about his/her character. Do you grind it out, learn the game and persevere, or do you take shortcuts, roll the dice and hope to hit it big?
Better yet, Boobie, what made you want to succeed at poker, and what steps did you take to achieve that success? Same question goes for anybody else on the forum who wants to answer it.

[aixelsyD tA loL]

Your golf example doesn't really correlate well to poker. Chance plays a big role in poker while golf it really does not.

[GTDawg]

You know, I did this over the past summer. And, well, it's not the same because, as it has been pointed out many many times before...you can play great poker over any amount of time and still be a losing poker player.

The amount of variance between poker and golf is any magnitude greater. If you practice and get better at golf, the bad bounce your ball takes on some random drive will not affect you as much. However, no matter how much you practice poker, it will never be able to overcome the dream flop when you get stuck with the underset.

You can't take a 3-iron and punch back out in to the fairway if you flop the second best fullhouse.

There's too much chance involved. There's too much opportunity to be a bad poker player and win while also the possiblity of being a good poker player and losing.