The way in which you set goal strongly affects their effectiveness.
Before you start to set goals, you should have set the background of goal
setting by:
understanding your commitment to the sport
understanding the level you want to reach within the sport
knowing the skills that will have to be acquired and the levels of
performance that will be needed
know where this will fit into your overall life goals
These were discussed in the previous section.
General Guidelines
The following broad guidelines apply to setting effective goals:
Positive Statement: express your goals positively: 'To execute this
technique perfectly' is a much better goal than 'don't make this stupid
mistake'
Be Precise: if you set a precise goal, putting in dates, times and amounts
so that achievement can be measured, then you know the exact goal to be
achieved, and can take complete satisfaction from having completely achieved
it.
Set Priorities: where you have several goals, give each a priority. This
helps you to avoid feeling overwhelmed by too many goals, and helps to
direct your attention to the most important ones.
Write goals down to avoid confusion and give them more force.
Keep Operational Goals Small: Keep the goals you are working towards
immediately (i.e. in this session) small and achievable. If a goal is too
large, then it can seem that you are not making progress towards it. Keeping
goals small and incremental gives more opportunities for reward. Today's
goals should be derived from larger goals.
Important Points
A number of general principles should be noted about goal setting:
Set Performance, not Outcome Goals
This is very important. You should take care to set goals over which
you have as much control as possible - there is nothing as dispiriting as
failing to achieve a personal goal for reasons beyond your control such as poor
judging, bad weather, injury, excellence in other athletes, or just plain bad
luck. Goals based on outcomes are extremely vulnerable to things beyond your
control.
If you base your goals on personal performance targets or skills to be
acquired, then you can keep control over the achievement of your goals and draw
satisfaction from them. For example, you might achieve a personal best time, but
still be disqualified as a result of a poor judging decision. If you set an
outcome goal of being in the top three, then this will be a defeat. If you set a
performance goal of achieving a particular time, then you will have achieved the
goal and can draw satisfaction and self-confidence from its achievement.
Another flaw is where outcome goals are based on the rewards of winning,
whether these are financial or are based on the recognition of being a winner.
In early stages these will be highly motivating factors, however as they are
achieved, the benefit of winning another prize or championship at the same level
reduces. You will become progressively less motivated.
One difficulty you will face is that people who are ignorant of sports
psychology, such as many poor coaches, parents, media, fans, etc. base their
assessment of success on winning. This completely ignores the effect of raw luck
on high quality performance. As with many things, stick with what you know is
right rather than what uninformed people think.
Set Specific Goals
Set specific measurable goals. If you achieve all conditions of a measurable
goal, then you can be confident and comfortable in its achievement. If you
consistently fail to meet a measurable goal, then you can adjust it or analyse
the reason for failure and take appropriate action to improve skills.
Set Realistic Goals
Goals may be set unrealistically high for the following reasons:
Other people: Other people (fans, parents, media) can set unrealistic
goals for you, based on what they want. Often this will be done in ignorance
of your goals and training programs.
Insufficient information: If you do not have a clear, realistic
understanding of your sport and of the techniques and performance to be
mastered, it is difficult to set effective and realistic goals.
Always expecting your best performance: Many people base their goals on
their best performance, however long ago that was. This ignores the
inevitable backsliding that can occur for good reasons, and ignores the
factors that led to that best performance. It is better to set goals that
raise your average performance and make it more consistent.
Lack of respect for self: If you do not respect your right to rest,
relaxation and pleasure in life then you risk burnout.
Setting Goals Too Low
Alternatively goals can be set too low because of:
Fear of failure: If you are frightened of failure you will not take the
risks needed for optimum performance. As you apply goal setting and see the
achievement of goals, your self- confidence should increase, helping you to
take bigger risks. Know that failure is a positive thing: it shows you areas
where you can improve your skills and performance.
Taking it too easy: It is easy to take the reasons for not setting goals
unrealistically high as an excuse to set them too low. If you're not
prepared to stretch yourself and work hard, then you are extremely unlikely
to achieve anything of any real worth.
Setting Goals at the Right Level
Setting goals at the correct level is a skill that is acquired by practice.
You should set goals so that they are slightly out of your immediate grasp,
but not so far that there is no hope of achieving them: no-one will put serious
effort into achieving a goal that they believe is unrealistic. However, remember
that the belief that a goal is unrealistic may be incorrect. Such a belief can
be changed by effective use of imagery.
Personal factors such as tiredness, injury, stage in the season, etc. should
be taken into account when goals are set.
Now try setting some goals, and then measure them against the points above.
Adjust them to meet the recommendations and then review them. You should now be
able to see the importance of setting goals effectively.
