Goal
Setting for Athleletes
by Marie Dalloway, Ph.D.
Sailing a blue-water boat further than a safe, snug harbor
requires charting your course. Backpackers hiking in the
wilderness need topographical maps or an excellent knowledge
of the area to plan their hikes for sufficient water and
for safety. Pilots plot their flight-path in detail before
take-off. The effectiveness of setting goals is apparent
in numerous ways in our lives. Assessing where you are,
where you want to go, and how best to get there, make
up a natural and intelligent use of the human mind.
Having goals may not be as obvious a requirement for the
athlete as it is for the pilot or the sailor. However,
for athletes striving to attain their top performance
level, goals are a requirement.
Importance of Goal Setting
By setting a goal, athlete establishes a criterion or
yardstick by which performances can be measures and progress
can be assessed. A single performance or a group of performances
can be judged in relation to goals. Ask: How does this
performance rate in relation to what I wanted to accomplish.
Goals are also important because they affect an athlete's
thinking. A goal functions mental structure that organizes
and gives meaning to other thoughts and actions. Goals
structure thoughts into organized patterns. They direct
your thinking toward certain outcomes. Goals produce coherence
within an individual's thinking and a sense of intentionality.
This focused condition promotes concentration.
Goals assist athletes in being strategic. Setting a goal
involves a commitment to action steps, the work and training
that make the journey from the present to the goal state
possible. With a goal in sight, daily training routines
and workouts make sense. They fall into place within the
framework that goals provide.
Goal Identification
The question of "What do I really want?" is important
for every athlete to answer in relation to sports goals.
Grappling with that question in relation to your athletic
life holds numerous advantages.
You are your most important resource. Your time represents
a fundamental item in your life. How you use your time
is up to you.
Your time in competitive athletics is a whole career life.
Unless athletes identify their goals, the chance of reaching
them is slim. Athletes think they know what they want
because they have goal-like objectives, such as making
the team, making the first string, winning the next game,
finishing well for the season, or having the team reach
the regionals. Once you take stock of what you want to
accomplish and determine your goals, you move beyond the
cliches and the superficial objectives that substitute
for goals.
By writing goals down, you see them in a concrete, objective
way. You may be surprised by what you discover about your
goals. The first part of goal setting is identifying your
goals. It is best to work with three goals or less. For
each goal, write a clear statement that states what you
really want to accomplish in terms of a specific outcome.
A significant benefit from goals, in addition to the motivational
effects, is learning to use your time wisely. You learn
to direct your efforts and your energies toward that which
you want to accomplish.
Goal Formulation
Goal formulation is different from identifying
a goal. Goal formulation involves making a goal statement
that expresses your true intent. To express a goal accurately
requires following guidelines for creating the goal statement.
Each of the following guidelines assist you in constructing
effective goal statements.
High-Impact Language. One rule for constructing goal
statements entails using pointed, cogent language. State
your goal in your own words, but state it with punch!
Avoid words or phrases that are qualifying, hesitant,
or wishy-washy. A vast difference exists between statements
such as "I would like to run a marathon race one day;"
and "I run a 2:40 in the Fiesta Bowl marathon this December."
The first statement sounds more like wishful thinking
than a goal. The second statement is definitive, clear,
and direct.
Be Specific. Stating that you want to run faster does
not do the trick. If running is the target for your goal
statement, name the distance, the time, the race, and
the date by which you accomplish the goal. Being specific
and graphic in your goal statement creates impact on your
mind. Notice the difference between the following two
goals: "I want a new car," and "I have a new Peugeot station
wagon that is green and has a tan leather interior, a
sun roof and a stereo tape deck." The specificity of the
second goal creates a mental picture. The goal statement
should trigger a clear picture of what you want to achieve.
Writing a specific goal statement accomplishes this objective.
Use the Present, Not the Future, Tense. A goal statement
is phrased differently from ordinary conversation. Goal
statements are written in the present tense. To say "I
will run a sub-three-hour marathon" does not effectively
convey your intent. Because of the way information is
processed in the brain, future tense statements lack impact.
Your mind says "OK, one of these days, in the future,
I will run a sub-three-hour marathon. What's next to program?"
The mind works literally. With future tense statements
the mind programs the idea that you will do something,
rather than programming your doing it. Writing or saying
a goal statement in present tense may sound strange. However,
present tense writing of goal statements is the effective
way of conveying your intention. With the example of running
a sub-three-hour marathon, a correct form for the goal
statement is, "I run a sub-three-hour marathon."
Watch Out for Pitfalls in Goal Writing. A number of
don't exist in writing goal programs. These pitfalls are
habitual expressions in ordinary language that, when used
in goal statements, dampen their impact and effectiveness.
Most people know not to use the negative in a goal statement.
True. Avoid the negative. Statements such as "I won't
be injured in 1986," or "I won't be beaten by John Jones
in 10K races," are unhelpful. They may act as a hindrance.
(Maggitti) The mind processes the concept and the picture
of the concept. The gymnast who says to herself, "Don't
fall off the beam," is doing herself a disservice. The
information processing of this instruction includes a
picture of her falling from the beam. Negative statements
increase the probability of the negative occurrence. Always
express high-level directives such as goal statements
in the positive.
Another pitfall is listing goals together in one goal
statement. If you have difficulty deciding on a single,
most important goal, you can hold several goals simultaneously.
Write a separate goal statement for each goal. Avoid a
"shopping list" of goals, which is a single statement
that lists numerous goals.
Also, avoid beginning goal statements with "I want to..."
or "I have the potential... or ability to..." If you state
"I have the ability to run a sub-40-minute 10K" as your
goal, you have fallen into this pitfall in programming.
The mind affirms your ability to accomplish the goal.
However, the statement fails to program what you want,
which is an actualization of that ability. Statements
such as "I want" or "I have the capability (or resources,
knowledge, stamina, experience)" fail to program your
objective.
Do not use "more," "less," or "better" in goal statements.
This recommendation represents a corollary to the specificity
rule. If your goal statement is "I run faster in 1988,"
you achieve your goal if you run a fraction of a second
faster in one race during the year. Statements of this
type miss your intent. Examples of goal statements that
correctly express an athlete's intent to run faster are
as follows: "I decrease my time in the 10K by two minutes
by December of this year," or "I improve my marathon race
time by fifteen minutes within the next three months."
Target Your Goal. Everyone has numerous goals: Short-term
as well as long-range goals, peripheral as well as central
goals. Targeting the goal means that the statement describing
the goal aims directly at what is desired. Typically,
first attempts to state a goal express a means rather
than an end. If the goals you have are contingencies for
another goal, search again to find a goal that is as ultimate
a statement as you can make about what you want. You discover
a true goal when the goal is not something that you want
to achieve in order to do or have something else.
Another aspect of targeting the goal concerns the method
of expressing the goal statement. If a person has been
in chronic pain for years, being pain free sounds like
a reasonable goal. The goal does not contain a negative.
However, the statement does not target the desired condition.
Vital health, radiant well-being may be unfamiliar conditions
to the pain patient, but they represent the desired conditions.
Goal statements need to be directed toward the state of
health rather than the absence of pain. Targeting goals
precisely gives you a boost toward the achievement of
your goal.
Why These Guidelines Work. The guidelines for goal
formulation are not arbitrary. They are based on how the
mind processes information.
If you wrote a program for a computer, you might write
in a standard language, such as APL, Fortran, or BASIC.
Say you did not know a computer language. Then you need
to write the information in English and have a programmer
translate the material into a computer language. The possibility
of errors in translation and interpretation is very real.
An analogous situation operates when writing goals.
By following these guidelines, you create goal statements
in a language for the human bio-computer that is analogous
to a computer language for the mechanical computer. If
you write in a language that is specific to the machine,
you reduce the problems in translation and interpretation.
Following the guidelines for goal formulation enhances
your efforts to attain your goals.
Summary
Goal setting is one of the mental skills that
assist athletes in developing their potential. By thinking
seriously about what you want to accomplish in your sport
and following goal setting procedures, you can create
a useful map to guide you in going from the present to
a future that includes the accomplishment of your goals.
As with the pilot or the navigator, your map guides your
journey.
The goal setting process for athletes lends a sense of
meaning and significance to the sports life. Constructing
a map to your future puts you in the position of creating
your own destiny. You light the way by your intention.
The effort and work you put behind your intention determines
whether it will become a reality.
Copyright © 2000 By Marie Dalloway All Rights Reserved
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“Athletes at all levels need to know that performance enhancing
mental skills are natural, simple, and easy to learn. This area presented
so well by Marie Dalloway is the path of the future in self-improvement
athletic programs.”
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Major Accounts Customer Support
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