I have started reading a lot of business leadership books lately and they all talk about setting goals for yourself and for your team. Yesterday it hit me.....What a concept to apply to college football! So with my newly found goal-setting practices fresh on my mind, I made it my mission to set goals for myself this football season.

Goal #1: Try new game day beers - I do not stray from my two game day staple beers, Miller Lite and Ziegenbock. I like them and typically see no reason to switch things up. However, I have friends who have gotten into trying new beers (microbrews and faraway local beers) recently and my interest has now been piqued. I am going to use the thirteen game game days (that's right I am confident in a bowl game this season) to try a new beers. Not huge goal and easily attainable, but I need at least one of my goals to be a gimme.

Goal #2: Relax - Football is just a game. I get so wrapped up in wins and losses and hating on the teams I despise that I lose perspective. I forget there are much more important things in life than the score to a football game. Looking back a year ago, I can't remember much from last season except it stunk to go 4-8 and a few exceptional plays. I realize my life wasn't impacted at all by last football season. Life moves on, what seemed like Mount Everest a year ago is now an anthill and I am still here to enjoy another season. That is exactly what I intend to do. This also offers a perfect segue to my final goal.

Goal #3: Enjoy the season - A friend and I have the same three college football conversations throughout the year. The first one starts a few days after the football season ends and continues throughout the offseason. The conversation always it includes the phrase "I am ready for football season" or something very similar. The second conversation happens right around the midpoint of the season and includes a comment like this "I can't believe the season is already half over." The last one takes place immediately after the last game of every season. Inevitably the sentences "That season flew by. I can't believe it is over," are murmured in a sadly defeated tone as we are tossed face first into the throngs of another long offseason. As readers of this site, I am almost certain #1) you are a college football fan and #2) you have the same type of conversation with your buddies.

Well this season I am going to make it a point to enjoy the moment that is the Red Raider football season. Once the season starts, I typically find myself looking ahead at games down the road or running scenarios through my head about how the season could play out if we beat this team or that team. I know I am not the only one to do this. I think it is just part of being a fan and the whole fan experience. It is like buying a lottery ticket and dreaming about the possibilities of what you would do with the money if you actually won it. In other words it is natural. However this season next game be damned, I am not looking ahead. I am going to enjoy the build up of each game and the game itself. Only after that game ends will I allow myself to look towards the next game and no further. I hope this will allow me to enjoy the season more and not look back and wonder how it flew by so quickly.

It's going to be a good season!