In addition to setting a specific performance goal, plan how you are going to accomplish it. This will direct your training, so that you know exactly what you need to do. Your goal may actually be focused on the training itself rather than the end result.
When you evaluate goals for yourself that are desirable and achievable, you identify what your strengths and weaknesses are. Focus your goals on improving your weaknesses and making the most of your strengths. This will help you to move forward with a better understanding of your abilities and unique challenges.
Goals give you something to focus on. No one can do everything, so goals define what you consider important and what you don’t. Whether your ultimate purpose is to lose weight, become faster and stronger or acquire new skills; you are more likely to achieve that goal when all of your efforts are strictly focused on it.
Goals create motivating pressure, especially if you have a friend, coach or trainer who is holding you accountable. They give you a basis by which to judge your own success or failure, and a point at which you can say “I have succeeded.”
The sense of accomplishment you get from fulfilling a goal can be very empowering. It encourages you to set more goals and to pursue them with enthusiasm. If you fail to reach your goal, you have motivation to examine why you failed: Was it the goal, or your method of getting there? Make the necessary adjustments and try again.
If your goal is to climb Mount Everest, that probably seems impossible. Such a goal would discourage almost anyone. But if you break the process down into small intermediate goals, you will find yourself accomplishing things you didn’t think possible, a little bit at a time. Set goals that are attainable for you now, realizing that each one can lead you on to greater things.