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New Year is traditionally a time when we set goals and make resolutions. At home and at school we have often been told that to be successful, we need to set goals for ourselves. Very True! All of us set goals with earnestness and a hope to carry it through. Yet a large majority of our goals are abandoned midway. Oh yes, there are a host of excuses, but the universal excuse that takes a lot of beating is “I CAN’T FIND TIME”.

Goals are often abandoned because they are not approached logically. There is a process involved and whether it is a sports related goal or not, the process cannot be very different. In this Newsletter let us devote a little time and take a look at the steps involved in SETTING GOALS.

Knowing yourself, your current performance levels, your strengths / weaknesses is the first step in the process. Let’s assume you are an athlete, 13 years old. Your current best timing in the 100 meters is 16.0 seconds. Your weaknesses are a late start at the gun and a poor finish in the last 20 meters of the race.

The next step would be identifying your long-term goal. Your long-term goal is to become the fastest man on Planet Earth. Nothing wrong with that. All champions start with a dream and so do you.

Now that you a clear definition of your present performance level and your long-term goal, you now need to set realistic short-term goals for yourself. The key word here is REALISTIC. Let’s say your short-term goal is to improve your performance from the present 16.0 seconds to 11.0 seconds in the next three months. Is this realistic? No, it isn’t. You have set yourself an unrealistic goal. An unrealistic goal is counter-productive. At the end of the period, you would consider yourself a failure because you are judging yourself against an unrealistic goal. On the contrary had you measured yourself against a realistic goal, you would have been a success. A more realistic short-term goal in this case would have been “I am going to improve my timing from 16.0 seconds to 15.0 seconds in the next three months”.

After setting yourself a realistic goal, you now need a plan of action. If your plan of action is to put on your running shoes and do 4 miles of casual running every Sunday, forget it, you are never going to achieve your goal. It is apparent that you are not spending enough time on your training and also doing nothing towards improving your weakness. Without a proper plan of action, your goal will just remain wishful thinking. Once you identify your weakness, your priority should be to work on your weakness first. In this case you should specifically work on your reaction speed to the gun and also on building the explosive muscle power needed towards the end of the race.

The right method would be to set goals that are slightly out of your immediate grasp. This is when you can realistically measure and take pride and satisfaction in your performance. A realistic goal is like the proverbial carrot in front of you (if you like carrots that is). Tempting enough and within your immediate grasp to make you go for it.

Now that you have a clearly defined plan of action, here comes the tough part. Self-discipline and commitment to WORK AND STICK to your plan of action. This is what separates the wheat from the chaff, the champions from the also-rans. Champions are made not born. The only way you can develop skills is through self-discipline, commitment and hard work.

Sometimes you might find that the short-term goals you set are being realized too easily. In such instances you could make the next set of goals a little harder. Occasionally, you might find that you are unable to achieve your short-term goal. In such cases you could modify your training methods or even make your goal a little easier. Sometimes you might have to readjust your goals, due to extraneous reasons, like an injury or an accident. Therefore a periodic feedback and review is very essential.

The tangible benefits you can derive by setting goals are many. Your training will become more meaningful and there will be pride in your performance. You will benefit from increased motivation and self-confidence. At the end of the day you will derive tremendous satisfaction in having realized your targets. By being more focused and staying in the present you will manage your time better and will be surprised to find more hours in a day than you thought existed. Isn’t that reason enough for you to set goals?