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Use Personal Goal Setting for Better Athletic Performance This Year

© Alli Rainey

Looking to improve sports performance this year? Start by using the goal-setting tips below. Make a resolution now to achieve new levels in athletic (and life) endeavors.

Learn why and how to set personal goals for improved sports (and life) performance. Goal-setting tips in this article include how to formulate realistic short-term goals, medium-term goals, and long-term goals for better athletic performance. This same goal-setting strategy can be used for personal goal setting to improve other areas of life as well. Enjoy better athletic performance by drawing upon the proven power of goal setting.

Why Learn How to Set Goals?

Setting personal goals in any area of desired improvement, whether athletic or another area of life, can provide a person with a greater sense of direction and focus in their chosen endeavor. Studies have demonstrated that setting goals encourages people to work harder and be more dedicated to attaining their aims. Follow the directions on how to set goals below for a tried-and-true method of creating realistic and attainable goals throughout life.

Start by Setting Long-Term Goals

Start the personal goal-setting process by thinking about the ultimate level of sports performance desired. Keep in mind that in order for goal setting to work, it’s important to try to create long-term goals that are attainable and realistic. For example, a healthy 50-year-old setting the goal of becoming a professional basketball player is unrealistic. But a healthy 50-year-old deciding that he or she would like to someday run a marathon is much more realistic.

Long-term goals include what the person wishes to attain within the next two to 10 years, and even beyond. It’s important to keep an open mind when setting long-term goals, to understand that changes can and will happen in life circumstances that might lead to the modification of long-term goals. While these goals will dictate the formation of both the medium and short-term goals, they’re not necessarily set in stone.

It’s possible that the goal-setting individual will discover a different direction or aim as he or she begins to work toward and through the medium and short-term goals. This is fine and to be expected. Keep an open, flexible mind and a willingness to change long-term goals if the need arises—such as learning that the knees won’t allow for a marathon to be run, but that walking a marathon is a more realistic option.

Medium-Term Goals Come Next

Once several long-term sports performance goals have been set, the athlete can move on to establishing specific medium-term goals that aim to help drive him or her toward the long-term goals. Medium-term goals should encompass a year’s worth of training and athletic performances. It’s easiest to create these goals at the start of each New Year, often with the help of a qualified expert or personal trainer.

Medium-term goals should include realistic and attainable goals to reach within a one-year period of time. These goals should take into account the person’s current state of physical fitness and his or her experience with the sport in question, as well as the amount of time and money that can be devoted to improving sports performance.

Finally, Set Some Short-Term Goals

Short-term goals provide a person with the concrete plan of action to attain both medium and long-term goals. Short-term goals can be as short as goals for a single workout, or for a week or a month’s worth of workouts or athletic performances. Short-term goals should be specific and attainable in a relatively short period of time.

In terms of sports performance, short-term goal setting can include such goals as the following:

• Completing a certain number of specific, goal-oriented workouts in a week
• Completing a race or mock race under a specified time
• Allowing enough rest days to recover appropriately from workouts
• Eating properly to encourage top athletic performance and recovery
• Reading relevant materials to improve understanding of the sport

All of the above goals are realistic and precise, giving the goal-setting individual clear guidelines and aims that will help push them along the path toward achieving their medium and long-term goals. Short-term goals should be written down at the start of each week of training, if not every day, in order to remind the person setting goals of what they’re hoping to accomplish in this day/week of training.

Use These Goal-Setting Tips for Improved Sports and Life Performance

Setting clear and realistic personal goals encourages improved athletic performance, as well as improvement in all areas of life. Use the above goal-setting tips on how to set short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals together in order to achieve better athletic performance. By creating attainable yet challenging goals in all three time frames, athletes and others can harness the power of goal setting and continue to use goals as guidelines throughout their lives.

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The copyright of the article How to Set Goals to Improve in Sports (and Life) in Mind/Body Fitness is owned by Alli Rainey. Permission to republish How to Set Goals to Improve in Sports (and Life) in print or online must be granted by the author in writing