Jim Graves
Connector Contributor

For those of you who don’t remember those “good old days” your teachers might refer to, it was a time when telephones had cords and rotary dials, and the car glove compartment was filled with stacks of folded road maps.

The quantity of maps served as a testament to the many journeys taken. Road maps were unwieldy things. Unfolding and refolding them was a challenge worthy of an Olympic medal. Simply orienting yourself on the map, relative to the direction you were facing, was a confusing enterprise and often brought into question whether one truly knew one’s left from right.

Today we have satellites guiding our way from here to there. The global positioning system (GPS) is now common place. An address is entered into your device and off you go, no doubts and full of confidence. It even speaks to you, more like commands you, to follow its lead. It even “reconfigures” the route when you miss a turn. The only thing it doesn’t do is say: “hey stupid, turn around!”

So what’s this all have to do with sports, in particular, and life in general? Well, goals are targets, your personal GPS, guiding you until you safely reach your destination. My experience has taught me that people tend to be more than a little sloppy about setting goals.

All too often goals are set in a perfunctory manner as part of some exercise required by the coach or parent. Too often, goals are set with little care, ownership, emotional investment or real understanding as to how crucial the process really is to excellence.

It’s pretty easy to tell when an athlete isn’t taking their goal-setting seriously. If you ask to see their charting of their goals, what percentage progress they have made, or what adjustments they’ve made and they stare blankly, then you know.

If you’re an athlete and you’re not passionate about getting better, a lot better, then maybe it’s time to re-evaluate how you spend your time.

My belief is, unless one has been the recipient of amazing good fortune or sheer luck, individuals who achieve great things do so because they have set goals to do amazing things. Goals are the fuel of motivation, and how much we care about those goals will determine the power of our punch. Is it a weak jab or a mighty uppercut?

Goals are designed to excite the individual by mapping out a realistic way to reach your dreams. Of course, they have to be your dreams.

If your goals have been designed properly, each step should be a new accomplishment — a reward in itself — and information as to your progress. Goals need to be largely under your control. It’s tough to get excited about goals when others determine if you can or cannot meet them.

Goal setting starts by naming pretty big, exciting outcome goals. People are usually highly passionate and motivated about these targets, e.g. running your first marathon, winning a championship, making the team, or getting a degree. These goals get the “juices” running. The only problem is that such goals alone really provide no plan of attack or organized path to get there.
The next step is to identify those things that you need to do well to get there, e.g. run fast, score points, block shots, shoot under par, or get good grades, for example. These goals are called “performance goals” and what makes them important is that you control them; you’re competing against yourself.

Your competition is your previous best performance. Performance goals are also pretty flexible. You can make adjustments on the fly, keeping motivation high, e.g. “I’m shooting for under par for the last six holes.”

Even performance goals aren’t enough to do the trick. Often times there’s a goaltender blocking your shot, defensemen working against you, unexpected adversities, even bad luck, getting in your way. So we need to also set our sights on goals that we truly have the most control over, and those are “process goals.”

To set “process goals” one must engage in a little introspection. You’ve got to ask yourself: “when I play well, how do I do it?” This may not be so easy to answer because when we perform well we’re usually on automatic pilot and we’re just playing. But with time, effort, and a little prompting, you’re usually able to get to the root of how you do what you do.

What you might identify are such things as: I study at least two hours a night, or, I feel balanced on both feet and my shoulders are relaxed, or my hands are soft and loose as I clear the hurdles. These process points, if you really focus on them, allow you to “stay in the moment,” preventing you from getting too far ahead of yourself, keeping you free for any anxiety and worry.

It is critical to set “process goals” — they are the foundation of superior performance.

The theory of goal setting is: if you consistently reach your process goals, i.e. do the things that are necessary to play well, then there’s a real good chance you’ll reach those performance goals, i.e. beating your best.

If you beat your best, you’re putting yourself in a better possible position to hit your outcome goals. And that’s what it’s all about.

One last point: when you reach your goal, whether it’s a process, performance, or outcome goal, never settle for that. Raise the bar higher; keep that carrot out in front of you. Reaching a goal that really matters to you is one of the most rewarding experiences you’ll have, and it’s an experience that you can have over and over again.

If you have dreams you want to realize, goal setting is your road map to get there. Use it.