No matter what sport you are participating in and to what level it is always a good have your clear long-term goals laid out. These can be anything from winning the Olympic Gold to completing your first 10K Run. It is only having established your goals that is becomes possible to establish what sort of preparation and training you are going to need to help you get to your desired goal.
Deciding Priorities
If an athlete has identified their long term goals but appears to be lacking motivation this can often be due to having not established what the priorities are in the goals that have been set and crucially how these goals are going to be achieved.
Intermediate Goals
Another limitation to the success of achieving long term goals is if you have not established some intermediary goals as stepping stones along the way. Motivation can again be affected if the goal seems to be to far off and there are not enough tangible, achievable steps along the way to the ultimate goal.
SMART Goals
In all cases the central element to establishing goals relies on adhering to the SMART system of goals setting.
S- Specific: the more clearly defined goals are the more likely you are to achieve them.
M- Measurable: if you can’t measure the goal how will you know if you have achieved it?
A- Achievable: make goals possible. A 35 year old is not going to win a U21 England place.
R- Realistic: your must believe that the goal is realistically achievable.
T- Time: give yourself a time line to give you focus and aid with establishing training programmes.
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