The Shohei Ohtani Goal Matrix
Shohei Ohtani has been one of the most exciting baseball players in our generation. What makes him stand out is that he is an accomplished pitcher AND a batter. His fastball regularly clocks in at mean 160km and complemented by his nasty split finger. He’s feared as a batter where his performance on the plate mirrors what he can do on the mound. The only other player to achieve success in both roles is Babe Ruth, where “The Bambino” played in the majors nearly a century ago.
Ohtani’s stats are still far away from what Babe Ruth achieved. What we can say is that as long as he stays healthy, he has the potential to be a contender to win multiple awards in both roles. Now we take a few steps back to look at where Ohtani came from, especially during his high school days where he was regarded as a top prospect.
During an interview, he described how he made this “Goal matrix” (see picture below). In the center, he has his North Star of being drafted to become a professional player. Surrounding it are 9 sub-goals, which will increases the chances or help in achieving the North Star goal. He then further breaks down the 9 sub-goals into specific action items.
The amazing thing here is that Ohtani, at a young age understood the nature of breaking down big goals into smaller action items, and being lazer focused to execute each task. This is almost like an OKR where the one in the center is the grand company objective, and the sub-goals are like the team OKRs. There are lot of situations where we can apply this goal matrix, both in our personal lives and career. The key here is to stay focused, keeping sight of the “North Star”, and being relentless in the pursuit of accomplishing each item. Having just the big picture goal alone isn’t going to help. It’s similar to saying “you need to learn how to walk first before you can run”. Breaking it down into these smaller steps will definitely help in driving towards the right direction.
I gave this a try and made one for myself and to be honest it seemed overwhelming once you start filling in all the squares. However once you start looking at the details, you can quickly identify which one to focus on first. It can start off with 2 or 3 boxes, and the ones where the actions can become a habit (highly recommend Atomic Habits by James Clear). Slowly but surely, you’ll start to shade in and the boxes start to fill up.
What does your goal matrix look like? Why not try making one and see where you end up 3–5 years down the road?
To get you started, I made a quick template for the goal matrix which can be downloaded here.
