{"id":12765,"date":"2017-10-23T11:34:26","date_gmt":"2017-10-23T18:34:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/?p=12765"},"modified":"2017-10-23T11:34:26","modified_gmt":"2017-10-23T18:34:26","slug":"make-sports-goal-setting-s-m-r-t-e-r","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/make-sports-goal-setting-s-m-r-t-e-r\/","title":{"rendered":"Make Your Sports Goal Setting S.M.A.R.T.E.R."},"content":{"rendered":"

Goal setting is a simple and practical mental tool you can use to maintain a high level of motivation in your sports participation. For some very elemental reason, people respond to goals in a very deep and personal way. The experience of setting a goal, working toward a goal, and achieving a goal has a powerful emotional resonance that causes us to continue to strive higher for the goals we set for ourselves.<\/p>\n

Goals offer two essential things that fuel your motivation. First, goals provide the destination of where you want to go in your sports participation. This endpoint is important because if you don\u2019t where you\u2019re going, you\u2019re just going to stay where you are. Second, having a place you really want to go doesn\u2019t have a lot of value if you don\u2019t know how to get there. Goals provide the road map for getting to your destination.<\/p>\n

Set S.M.A.R.T.E.R. Goals<\/strong><\/p>\n

The acronym S.M.A.R.T.E.R. represents the five criteria that you can use to get the most out of your goal setting:<\/p>\n

Specific<\/strong>. Your goals should be specific to what you want to accomplish. For example, if you are a lacrosse player, you wouldn\u2019t want a general goal such as \u201cI want to improve my shooting.\u201d Instead, you want to identify what aspects of your stick handling you want to get better at. A more appropriate goal might be: \u201cI want to improve my scoring percentage.\u201d The more specific you can get, the more you can focus on what you need to do in your training to improve that area.<\/p>\n

Measurable<\/strong>. \u201cDo your best\u201d goals aren\u2019t very effective because they don\u2019t offer an adequate benchmark to strive for. Instead, you want to set goals that are measurable and objective. For example, if you are a basketball player wanting to improve her free-throw shooting, a measurable goal might be: \u201cMy goal is to shoot 50 free throws three times a week for the next four weeks to raise my free-throw percentage from 71 percent to 80 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Accepted<\/strong>. Ownership of your sport is essential for your athletic success. Ownership is no less important in the goals you set. Goals that are set by parents or coaches will not inspire or motivate you fully because they come from outside of you and you won\u2019t feel real buy-in because they aren\u2019t yours. When you set goals that you believe deeply in, they will be woven into the very fabric of your motivation and you almost have no choice about whether you strive them.<\/p>\n

Realistic<\/strong>. If you set goals that are too low, they will have little motivational value because you know you\u2019ll achieve the goal without much effort. You don\u2019t want to set goals that are too high because you\u2019ll know that you can\u2019t achieve them, so you\u2019ll have little incentive to put out any effort. You want to set goals that are both realistic and challenging. Realistic meaning that you can actually achieve them and challenging because your only chance of achieving them is by working really hard.<\/p>\n

Time limited<\/strong>. The best goals are ones in which there is a time limit for their achievement. You will feel highly motivated to put in the time and energy necessary to reach them when you have set a deadline to achieve them. For example, if you\u2019re a cyclist and want to improve your power output, a goal might be: \u201cI\u2019m going to work toward increasing my wattage by five percent by doing 45 minutes of interval training three times a week for the next six weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Exciting<\/strong>. Your motivation to strive toward your goals is driven by the emotions you associate with those goals. As a result, you want to set goals that inspire and excite you. These emotions can be the deciding factor in whether you achieve your goals when faced with setbacks, failures, disappointment, fatigue, pain, tedium, and the desire to do other more interesting things.<\/p>\n

Recorded<\/strong>. You are more likely to stay committed to the pursuit of your goals when you write them down (not just type them into your phone or computer) than if you just think about them. The physical act of writing your goals appears to somehow imprint them more deeply in your psyche. Writing them down also seems to make the goals more tangible and real. The explicitness of writing down your goals seems to create a greater sense of ownership of them that makes you feel more compelled to strive your goals.<\/p>\n

S.M.A.R.T.E.R. Guidelines<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are several other guidelines that can help you set goals that will offer you the maximum benefit.<\/p>\n

Focus on degree of attainment<\/strong>. Goal setting is still an inexact science because it is impossible to set goals that you can be sure you can achieve. Because of this uncertainty in the goal-setting process, your focus when you set and strive for goals should be their degree of attainment, not absolute attainment.<\/p>\n

Absolute attainment means accomplishing the goal in its entirety. For example, if you are an equestrian show jumper who has been clearing 3\u2019 fences and you set a goal of clearing 3\u2019 9\u201d fences within 16 weeks, you must clear at least that height for your goal to have been achieved successfully. Adhering to absolute attainment is a recipe for failure because it leaves only a small window for accomplishing the goal and a very large window for not.<\/p>\n

In contrast, degree of attainment emphasizes improvement toward the goal. Returning to the equestrian example, if, after 16 weeks, you have cleared 3\u2019 3\u201d fences, though your absolute goal wasn\u2019t attained, your improvement would be deemed a success. With degree of attainment, as long as you are showing progress toward a goal, you are on the right track.<\/p>\n

Make your goals public<\/strong>. You are more likely to adhere to your goals if you make them public, meaning share them with others, for example, showing them to your coach, family, or friends. Or posting them on your social media. By doing so, not only are you accountable to yourself, but also to everyone with whom you shared them.<\/p>\n

Review your goals regularly<\/strong>. Because goal setting is an inexact science, you should view goal setting as a dynamic and ever-evolving process of review, adjustment, and recommitment. You should make it a habit to review your goals monthly and compare them to your actual progress. It can also be helpful to review them with your coaches who can provide useful feedback you can use to make adjustments that will further motivate you to pursue your goals.<\/p>\n

Types of Goals to Set<\/strong><\/p>\n

Goal setting involves establishing a series of goals that start big picture and get increasingly specific and actionable.<\/p>\n