When you judge your success in athletic endeavors, you look for achievement. For some, achievement means winning. For others it is living a healthy life or a comparable standard. For others still, achievement is a specific mark in an event. In order for achievement to translate into success, you need a set of standards.
Name ______Grade______
1. What is it that you want to accomplish this season? (Make sure this is YOUR goal, not goals that anyone else has set for you to achieve; Are your goals measurable? Attainable? Realistic?)
2. Why do you want to pursue this goal? What motivates you?
3. What steps will you take to achieve these goals?
4. What does not help you? What obstacles might be in your way that would prevent you from achieving your goals?
5. How can your goals help you and your teammates be at their best this season?
6. How can the coaches help you be your best this season?
“You cannot afford to live in potential for the rest of your life; At some point, you have to unleash the potential and make your move.” – Eric Thomas
PVGTF 2017
#EVOLUTION
Strong Alone. Unstoppable Together.
General Goals
General goals are not event-specific. They include goals like:
- Making friends
- Living a healthy life
- Building self-confidence
- Becoming more competitive
- Finding out what you are capable of
While such goals are not event-specific — or even necessarily sport-specific — they still have an important effect on your event. A general goal is likely to be very important to you, as they tend to be far-reaching and supported by other aspects of your life. If competing well in your event contributes to your general goals, it will reinforce success in your event.
Further, because they are more general, these goals are more likely to be shared with those around you. Goal sharing serves to reinforce the objective by:
- Motivating you to work harder
- Making it feel better to achieve your goal
- Allowing you to prepare for your goal with others
Specific Goals
Specific goals are most commonly discussed. They tend to be smaller in scope, and because of this, more readily achievable. Setting a ****PR**** in the 400-meter dash — an example of a specific goal — is achievable in one day; living a healthy lifestyle is ongoing.
There are two types of specific goals: Outcome goals and performance goals. These are explained in detail below.
Write Your Goals Down
It’s a well-proven fact that written goals are more likely to be accomplished than unwritten ones. Once you’ve decided on a goal, write it down. Including the following information can be beneficial: How your success will be measured (often this is explicit in the goal), when you want to achieve your goal, and with whom you will share your goal.
Outcome Goals
An outcome goal is tied to a result — a specific mark or competitive placing. Examples of outcome goals include:
- Qualifying for an event
- Winning an event
- Setting a PR in an event
Outcome goals are those which can most commonly be overly-ambitious. Be careful to gauge your outcome goals appropriately.
Performance Goals
Performance goals — sometimes called process goals — are based on the method of achievement used. Examples of performance goals include:
- Employing a particular tactic or strategy successfully
- Maintaining proper form throughout the duration of your event
- Staying positive
- Staying low when coming out of the starting blocks
Performance goals can be thought of stepping stones to an outcome goal, since they often break an outcome goal down into simpler, more easily achievable goals.
Performance goals are often very effective, but athletes sometimes run into trouble with piling on too many at once. An easily achievable performance goal can become daunting when compounded with many other performance goals, all to be achieved in a single race. Keep it simple by choosing one or two performance goals that will be most effective. Once the skills associated with these goals become second nature, you’ll be able to proceed to new goals.
Team Goals
Achieving a team goal — such as winning a conference meet — requires the work of more than one athlete. Team goals and athlete goals are mutually beneficial. A well-set team goal reinforces individual goals, just as a good individual goal helps strengthen the team goal.
Accountability
A degree of accountability can be a good thing in goal-setting, especially if additional motivation to prepare is what you need. It’s easy to make yourself accountable for your goals — just share them with your coach, teammates, or friends. Writing your goals down also helps make you more accountable.
Timeline
The most effective goals have an inherent time frame. “I want to qualify for the 2012 Olympic Trials” is a better goal than “I want to qualify for the Olympic Trials”.
These timeframes range in scope from goals for a segment of a single practice all the way to those that span an entire career. Goals with a variety of timeframes are beneficial. Short-term goals, however, should always be the foundation of any long-term goal. These should serve as stepping stones, guiding your daily, weekly, and seasonal preparation toward each long-term goal.
Linking Goals Together
Linking one goal with another serves to reinforce every link in the chain, and increase the effectiveness of each goal in it. Goals can be linked in the following ways:
- From your long-term goals, all the way down to your goals for each day’s training
- From your outcome goals to the performance goals that will help you get there
- From your team goals to the individual goals that will make them possible
Every goal has a purpose, and linking goals together makes that purpose more explicit. It will also help guide your preparation and performance.
Don’t Stress
If your goals are making you feel stressed out, it is time to reevaluate. The purpose of a goal is to motivate you, expand your sense of accomplishment when you compete well, and generally help you compete at a higher level. If you’re too worried that you won’t achieve your goal to perform your best, your goals are failing you.
In such cases, athletes have typically encountered one of two errors:
- Focusing too heavily on outcome goals, especially overly ambitious ones
- Focusing on too many goals at the same time
Just remember: Goals are a tool to help you improve. Using goals should be a positive experience, and it will be as long as you don’t let them stress you out.