Are you setting your goals correctly? Most people don’t believe that there is a right or wrong way to set goals. It isn’t in the goals you set but how you set them, meaning short-term goals, long-term goals, and etc. As a student-athlete, you are used to setting goals or at least having them set for you. You also know what it’s like to meet a common goal with your teammates, which most of the time is set by your coach. For a track & field athlete, that’s one of the only sports that focuses on the individual. Those athletes consistently set goals for themselves whether it’s beating your personal best time, jumping just one more inch to beat your competition, or throwing just a little further. In your mind, you’re constantly striving to reach a goal that you’ve set in your mind.
When you’re thinking in your mind different things you want to accomplish, you need to think realistic timeframes. A popular way to set your goals is following the SMART outline!
S – Specific (or Significant).
M – Measurable (or Meaningful).
A – Attainable (or Action-Oriented).
R – Relevant (or Rewarding).
T – Time-bound (or Trackable).
Following those guidelines will give you more of a clear view on how to set goals. In college I consistently wrote down goals I wanted to accomplish whether it was short-term, long-term, or maybe just on my highly productive days. An example of some of my short-term goals was grade/gpa prediction in all of my classes. Being a student-athlete, you have to be way more organized and prompt when it comes to your classes because most professors aren’t “athlete-friendly,” let’s be real!
They won’t always compromise with your schedule or let you make up tests or quizzes due to missed class. The fact that I evaluated myself and wrote down grades I wanted out of those classes and staying on top of my GPA, as well as my professors, I succeeded. I had in my mind the effort I must put forward in order to get the results I wanted. As much class as I missed due to games and tournaments, there was no room for slacking off! #studentfirst #athletesecond #NODAYSOFF
