Goal setting

Setting goals helps a performer in three ways:

• Exercise and training adherence: goals give a reason to keep training, so people stick to their programme. A beginner jogger aiming to run 5 km keeps going out.
• Motivation: working towards a goal, and reaching it, makes performers want to keep trying.
• Improving and optimising performance: goals focus training on what needs to improve, so performance gets better.

Goals work best when they are SMART:

• Specific: clear and exact, about one thing.
• Measurable: it can be measured, so you know when you've reached it.
• Achievable: realistic for the performer, so they don't give up.
• Recorded: written down, so progress can be checked.
• Timed: with a date to reach it by.

Example: a club swimmer sets the goal: 'Cut my 100 m freestyle time from 72 seconds to 70 seconds by the county gala in 10 weeks, and log every training time.' It is specific (100 m freestyle), measurable (seconds), achievable (2 seconds), recorded (the log) and timed (10 weeks).

A goal such as 'get fitter' is hard to work towards: it isn't specific, it can't be measured, and it has no deadline.

A runner could make it SMART:

'Run 5 km in under 30 minutes, at the parkrun in 8 weeks' time, recording my time on every training run.'

• Specific: a 5 km run
• Measurable: under 30 minutes
• Achievable: she now runs it in 33 minutes
• Recorded: every training time is logged
• Timed: in 8 weeks

Each part helps her to stick to her training and to see her progress.

Goals should be reviewed when their deadline arrives, or sooner if things change:

• If the goal was reached, set a new, slightly harder one, so the performer stays motivated.
• If it wasn't, adjust it: perhaps it wasn't achievable, or an injury got in the way. Make it more realistic, or give it more time, rather than giving up.

A long-term goal can be split into short-term goals, each a step towards it. Reaching each step gives the performer a sense of progress, which helps adherence.