Sport Psychology

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Why the Hell am I Doing This?

Your quads are screaming, your lungs are crushed, and all you can think about is throwing up as you complete that final climb. You should be able to answer the simple question of why…what for? 

Successful athletes know exactly why they do what they do. At some point they identified the reason and connect to that reason. It’s really that simple. They know why their sport is important to them, what it means to them and they have clear direction and purpose.

An athlete recently asked me “Is it ok to change my goal?” I looked a little confused as I put together my response.  Was he asking permission?  “Of course I said.  It’s your goal.  You decide what your goals are and you decide what to do with them”. 

My brief exchange with this cyclist made me realize that so often athletes are not fully connected to their goals. They have big plans to accomplish great things but become unmotivated at some point along the way and yet still feel that they have no choice but to follow through.  How do athletes find themselves in this difficult and ambiguous position? Often this is because the goal was not important to them in the first place. Or maybe just not important enough to make it happen under any circumstances.

As athletes we commonly set goals and commit to make them happen.  We plan, strategize, work hard and do everything we can to try to accomplish them.  But what we often fail to do is understand our connection to that goal from the beginning and along the way. A goal that we are not connected to is simply something to cross off our to-do list. A powerful goal is one that we attach personal meaning to and once achieved find extremely fulfilling.

When I work with athletes on goal setting I start by taking them through a simple exercise of creating a mission statement. A mission statement is a written summary describing the aims, values, and overall plan of an organization or individual. Your company has one, your team may have one, but do you have one?  Maybe you want to get faster, fitter, better, win.  But why? Why are those things important to you?

Don’t underestimate the power of defining your relationship to your sport. Taking yourself through this exercise prior to working on goal setting will provide a solid foundation to work from and can help you make crucial adjustments to your goals throughout the year.

Take 5 minutes and sit down to explore your mission, purpose, and reason for participating in your sport. What you end up with should accurately explain why you do what you do and what it means to you. When you read what you’ve written you should be motivated, inspired and ready to set some big goals for yourself. One of the questions I am most often asked by athletes “how do I stay motivated?” Know exactly why you are working toward your goals and you have a much better chance of staying motivated.

Once an athlete has a clear understanding of what drives them I Introduce goal setting. A simple and effective formula to guide you through your goal setting is the S.M.A.R.T. formula,. Set S.M.A.R.T. goals and you are setting yourself up for success. S.M.A.R.T. goals broken down are:

S - specific

M - measurable

A - adjustable

R - realistic

T - timed

This formula is nothing new and in fact you may be familiar with different versions.  The “A” is one of the principles that many debate over – some say the “A” should be “action oriented”, some say it should represent “aggressive” or “attainable”. I use the “A” to represent “adjustable”.

Goals are meant to be reset or adjusted for a number of reasons. Sometimes we set out to achieve a goal we have set for ourself only to discover that that goal is really not all that important to us.  Sometimes we are confronted with a number of obstacles along the way – injury, personal or professional commitments.  Whatever it may be, sometimes it is necessary to adjust a goal we have set for ourself and every athlete should have the freedom to do just that.

I have been challenged by athletes and coaches on the idea that goals can be adjustable.  “You set a goal and it is set in stone. If you don’t achieve it then you don’t achieve it.  You shouldn’t be able to change it along the way”. That’s a response or some version of that that I get every once in a while.  But goals belong to you – you set them, you decide what to do with them and you decide what is going to make you happy in the long run.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that athletes should give themselves an out along the way. Goals are meant to be challenging and require commitment, hard work and heart. But continually ask yourself “Is this goal still important to me and why?” Go back to your mission statement and ask yourself if it accurately reflects who you are today and what you want to be working towards. We change, evolve and become different every day….our goals should as well.

Reprinted from October issue of ROAD Magazine