Goal setting is important in every aspect of your life. This means that you have a specific picture in your mind, you write it down, and achieve it. It is important to see it every day. There are many factors that go into goal setting one general rule about goal setting is SMART (specific, measureable, attainable, realistic, timely). Now timely doesn’t mean that you have to set a hard goal to be done tomorrow this means that you put a time constraint on it to give a specific point to work towards. It is very simple a SMART goal would sound something like “my goal is to have room clean by the end of tonight” it has all of the components; it is specific: clean room. Measureable: clean can be measured. Attainable: yes, I can clean my room. Realistic: yes, I can have a clean room. Timely: by the end of the night. This all shows how simple it can be. Goals, to be effective, have to be positive. Writing your goals down is very important because in doing the writing it becomes more prominent in your mind every time you see it. keep goals at a low level and break them up if they are too big otherwise it will seem like you are not making progress. If you have a big goal then breaking it up is easy. Out-line the steps you need to take in order to reach that goal then set the different steps as a goal to work towards. Effective goals are performance goals not outcome goals. That means that you have to set goals that you have the most control over.
“First and foremost, having goals paved the way for me to accomplish things that I probably could not have achieved without having a road map of short term goals leading to long term goals.” Said Jeff Symons, an 8 time All-American diver, 3 time world master diving champion. He has been a big inspiration in my life with his athletic success and business success. Jeff told me “My biggest goal in sports was to be an All American. That goal was set my freshman year in high school maybe even 8th grade. The time line was by the end of my Senior year.” He won his first All-American honor his sophomore year in high school and every other year in high school (1980-1982). His success story, the way he tells it, is heavily based upon setting goals. He would make a list of goals, both long term and short term. He would write his long-term goals on a sheet of paper and put it on his wall near his light switch so everyday he would read it. He also put them on his mirror to be sure he would see it everyday. He worked tirelessly everyday just to get better. “My main goal was to get better every single day and that would lead to achieving my long term goals.” Jeff said. “How did I achieve the goals?” said Jeff “Hard work dedication, being mentally tough at all times, practice, practice, practice, and setting goals.” Upon graduating he went to Arkansas to dive for them. He won 2 All-American while attending that school. In his senior year he transferred to Iowa State University where he won another All-American award. He set the Iowa high school records for diving and they still stand today after 28 years.
A key part of setting goals is “you have to be all in” as Jeff puts it “If you second guess yourself you will not be able to accomplish the goal in my opinion.” I am a firm believer in this statement. This is true for any goals you set. If you just set a goal and don’t actually want to put the time and work necessary to accomplish it then it will never happen. Again, I’m going back to the clean room example. I set the same goal a few weeks ago but when I set it, it was more of a want then an actual goal. Therefore it never got done. This week however I set the goal with the intention of doing so. It worked out very nicely I found that I made time to do it and it got done quicker than I imagined. Goal setting can work wonders if you are willing to put in the time and effort. Effort is the biggest part. It is not achieving the goal is only part of it because if you put an honest effort in then even if you fail you would still be able to feel good about your effort. Setting goals is as much of a physical thing as a mental thing.
Jerry Symons former head coach of the ISU dive team (1964-1998) is a great coach and athlete. He always talked about setting goals to both his teams and his family. As a child my dad told me about setting goals and how effective they are. When Jerry became a coach his record included a lot more than winning. In 1973 he won the College Swimming Coaches Association “Swimming Coach of the Year” award. In 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991, and 1992 he won the Big 8 Diving Coach of the Year. In 1992 he also won an All-American award for coaching. He coached 29 Big 8 diving champions. And in 1998 he won “Veisha – nominated Faculty of the Year” award. His biggest lifetime goal was to become a coach. As an eighth grader in 1948 he spent his summer working for his high school coach. “ I did about everything from breaking up concrete to cleaning the bottom of the swimming pool with a hookah unit.” He worked a 40hour week for only 3 cents an hour. He was graded on the quality of work he did. “Every 2 weeks, pay day; $3.60 for the 2 week of work (if you got perfect pay; if not somewhere less).” He worked for Coach Hefner for the next three summers. The pay stayed the same. By his senior year he was a lifeguard and helped with swimming lessons. “A lesson I learned was; to achieve anything in life, you need to work hard and to it to the best of your ability.” As a sophomore he broke his back while playing football and was in a walking cast for 12 weeks. When he got out of the hospital he helped manage the football team. That led him to become the manager for the basketball team. He returned to high school athletics. Technique was of great interest to him. He had very encouraging coaches that helped him formulate his ideas. Through this the seeds of his goals were planted. It took him eight years to develop his goal. The first step to achieving his goal was to graduate from college. In college he played football, was on the dive team, and ran track. He was a letter winner in all of these sports.
Jerry usually started his goal setting with a question. For example, what would the team like to accomplish, and what would each individual like to accomplish. This way they can work backwards to create their goals both short term and long term. They also know where they need to be and when they have to be there. It is a very effective strategy. He taught that strategy of thinking to all of his divers.
You need to set goals high enough to make you strive to achieve them. They cant be something easy that you can accomplish without much effort they need to be difficult and challenging. The higher the goals you set the better you will become. If you work to achieve your goals you will be surprised on how much you can actually achieve. “If you can picture it/believe it – you can achieve it,” said Tom Randall. Tom Randall played football for ISU and won an All-American award. He went on to play for the Cowboys and the Oilers. He also reiterates that goals give you a map of where you are going and how you can get there. “A lot of my athletic and business accomplishments have taken place after I had a clear picture in my mind of what it would be like after I accomplished my goal. When it took place, it was very natural because I had already lived it out in my mind.” When you set goals properly this is how it usually feels. You are not surprised when you accomplish your goal no matter how big it is. By the time you do all of the work to reach your goal it feels like you deserved to win it. It only feels like a surprise when you are not properly prepared. Like my coach says “If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail.” Goal setting is the building block for improving or changing your life. Even saying somewhere you would like to be in a year is a goal that you set. Goal setting is inevitable to achievement.
Goal setting is important for every aspect of life. It can help you improve where you are and get you to where you want to be. It can also help you with getting stuff done that you wouldn’t normally get done. It has been proven by many people that goal setting works. Goal setting is very easy to do all you need to do is identify where you want to be and give it a time period to complete it in, SMART. Athletically goals are very important and most every athlete sets goals, whether they know it or not.
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