Mental Skills Training = Performance Enhancement and Personal Growth
My mission is to over-deliver value on goods and services designed to help you win the mental side of the game.
This issue's theme: GOALS
Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
Contents:
You have goals. Do they help you?
"Overheard" from Inside the Minds of Athletes
YOU HAVE GOALS. DO THEY HELP YOU?
Today's Mental Skills Tip - We all have goals, whether we realize it or not. Some simply act to avoid pain. Others move towards pleasure. A select few systematically set and use their goals to navigate themselves towards exactly what they want in life. Well-stated, monitored, and adjusted goals will help direct attention appropriately, provoke physical action on this focus, improve time management skills, and increase persistence. These goal directed behaviors
are not always normal, so if where you're headed isn't normal or average either, actually writing down well-formed goals will help you achieve the 'extra'ordinary.
Short-term goals (e.g. daily or weekly goals) should have six characteristics. They should be SMART and controllable. That is, they should be [S]pecific, [M]easureable, [A]ttractive, [R]ealistic, [T]imed, and Controllable. It will not, in and of itself, help me to say that I want to be great. I need to define greatness specifically, in controllable and measurable terms. Then I must choose a level that is both attractive and realistic, and a date by which I will reach this level. For example,
a baseball/softball hitter may commit to having quality at-bats two-thirds of the time by April 1-- where a quality at-bat is one where he/she sees each pitch well, makes all good decisions about whether or not to swing, and then either gets a base hit, advances a runner (when trying more to advance the runner than get a base hit), or hits the ball hard.
Short-term goals must be monitored. This is what separates them from New Year's resolutions. Resolutions are usually set on January 1 and forgotten about by now (January 18). Goals should be monitored regularly and adjusted so that they remain both attractive and realistic. This monitoring process will help increase awareness of what controllable factors (behaviors) are working and should be repeated, and which are not and should be changed. If they are not adjusted, goals that are too
high will cause frustration; those set too low will not motivate.
Formal daily and/or weekly goal setting as described has been shown to increase the quality of a person's behavior and outcomes. This is true across the board, and goals are even more powerful for people who have or had Attention Deficit Disorder. Despite this consistent positive effect, formal goal-setting with follow-up is rare. If you decide to invest the time into goal setting and commit to your goals (rather than just being interested in them), give yourself a pat on the back. If
you'd like some forms to make this monitoring process just a bit easier, email me and I'll send them to you - free (or
buy my book as they're in there).
COACHING POINT -
If you are helping your athletes set goals, guide them through the process and play the Devil's Advocate, but be sure to let them pick their own goals. They know what fires up their own motors, and they'll choose impressively high goals. You'll probably have to explore whether or not each goal is realistic. Of course you don't want to put limiting beliefs on them, but you do want to address the reasons that their high goals will be so challenging to meet so that they have a
better understanding of the work that will be required. If someone has a goal, but cannot find a level that is both realistic and attractive, he's headed for a crash. Better to address that situation now than later!
Here are the daily/weekly goals a student-athlete I worked with set for himself in mid-January before an All-American season (Good job, Matt!):
- Have a plan for each practice
- Have a pupose for each bullpen and throw it with a game mentality
- Be an effective leader: lead by example, use good judgment, and show respect
- Know that I didn't short change myself.
- Reflect weekly on this category of goals.
Each of these goals was measured on either a yes/no basis, or a scale of 1-10.
Afterwards, you can provide the discipline they need by making sure that they are monitoring and adjusting their goals regularly.
"Overheard" from the Minds of some Great Athletes:
'Normal' Self-Talk can be transformed intoFantastic Self-Talk
Change:
Use instead:
