…when many athletes are planning their 2013 season! Season planning comes along with its wonderful “cousin”, goal setting!

Every athlete who has worked with me knows that I expect strongly encourage athletes to write down their goals, dreams, and visions for races (and personal life). While there are methods to my madness, it does not take a sport psychologist to tell you the benefits of goal setting, but here are a few anyway:

•  Studies have shown that people who set goals for themselves are more likely to experience less stress and anxiety. Good stuff! I’ll take less stress.
• Studies have shown that people whom set goals concentrate and remember more effectively AND demonstrate greater self-confidence. I’ll take that too!
• Studies indicate that people who subscribe to goal setting perform better and achieve more.

Basically, goal setting will make you a better athlete and a more successful athlete. It is one tool that can enhance all the physical training that you do. When I have athletes write down their goals it lets me know where they are (mentally, physically, and emotionally) aiming and what they want as an end result. From there it becomes a process of developing the athlete to be more mentally effective, directed, and resilient towards the identified goals.

If you are in the process of season planning or want to enhance what you already have planned out I recommend buying a notebook or journal and writing down your goals. Here are some tips to get you started:

1) State goals as intentions, not items on a wish list and not as “hopes.”

Start them with “I will” “I am” or “I am in the process of”

Example: “I am in the process of becoming a better athlete mentally, physically, and emotionally.” “I will achieve my best race day performance.”

2) Share your goals with someone and keep people around that want to see you progress.

Don’t be shy about telling people your goals and intentions. The more you speak about them the more they become apart of you. I call this “owning it.” Also, keep people around that will feed the energy into your dreams and goals, and cut out people whom can be deflating or complaining.

3) Write them down and keep them visible.

Anyone that knows me knows that I have quotes, intentions, goals lists posted all over my place. I recommend having them on your bathroom mirror in or on the inside of your main door so that you can see them on your way out before you start your day.

4) Review and revise list frequently.

This is a given when I work with athletes. We are always drafting and redrafting goals. The more clarity you get about where you are going and how capable you really are the more the goals are revised to reflect that. It’s a very exciting process to see an athlete “upping the ante” on their goals.

Having a clearly identified dream and goal starts planting the seed of success. If you believe then you WILL achieve it. Start here and now by developing a clear picture of where you want to be in the near future. Set your aim and GO!

Below is a hand written affirmation/goal Bruce Lee wrote about his desire to become the most successful Asian actor of all time…

“A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.” –Bruce Lee

Keep reaching for your peak and shine on my friends:) Thank you always for your support!

BTW feel free to write your 2013 goals in the comments section so I, and the rest of the blogging world, can support you and feed the energy into them.