CHARACTERISTICS OF GOALS

CHARACTERISTICS OF GOALS

1. Goals must be BIG - “It is better to aim high and miss, than to aim low and hit.”

Two student/athletes are in the process of setting their academic goals for the semester. Bob decides that this year he is really going to buckle down and work to establish some academic respectability and formulates a goal of a 3.5 or better GPA. Tony, on the other hand, decides to keep on doing what he’s always done (just enough to get by) and only wants just to pass all his classes.

At the end of the semester we look at their grades and find that Bob has worked hard in all his classes. His GPA for the semester is a 3.33, not the 3.5 or better that he had established as his goal but certainly much better than the 2.45 accumulated over the past 3 semesters in school. Bob aimed high but missed. However he is infinitely better off than Tony who aimed low and hit a GPA of 1.5. Yes, Tony is eligible to play (according to the rules established by the State Activities Association), but his dream of playing college ball for State U is dashed because State cannot recruit any player with such low academic achievement.

2. Goals must be long-range. One should have:

- Very long-range goals - perhaps lifetime

- High School Career Goals

- Goals for next year

- Goals for next season (3-4 months ahead)

- Goals for next month (4 weeks)

- Goals for the week.

Each week ask yourself: What is the most important thing for me to accomplish this week to move me closer to the realization of my goals?”

Goals must be broken down into daily activities that will move you step by step closer to the ultimate achievement-the realization of your dream. To borrow from Economics, one must use a system called ‘Sub Goal Analysis’ in this Goal Achievement Process.

We believe that all athletic moves stem from a foundation of strength. To be more “Athletic,” therefore, one needs to be stronger. Consider a Freshman football player, involved in weight training during the season and after the winter holidays sits down with his BFS/Be11 Max Card, looks at the BFS/Be11 Strength Standards and decides that his High School Career Goal is to Bench Press 310 before the first game of his Senior football season. He knows that he is just getting started in weight training but has seen some good progress to this point having started in the weight room just this year.

Benching 90 pounds was difficult. But getting help and encouragement from his coaches and teammates, he has increased his Bench Press to 110 pounds, and he feels his strength building. Is this a realistic attainable goal for him? We know that most people over estimate what they can do in one year, but greatly underestimate what they can accomplish in three years.

Using the process of Sub Goal Analysis we can break this goal down into what it is going to take this player to achieve his goal. To meet the goal he must bench press 200 more pounds in two years nine months; that’s 33 months. When you take 200 pounds and divide by 33 months, you get 6.06 pounds a month or 1.39 pounds per week. Is that attainable? Certainly!

Having established the Big Goal of a 310 pound Bench Press, he can go to work filling in other boxes on his Max Card. His yearly goal would be 12 months X 6.06 pounds = a 72.92 pounds increase for the year added to his present 110 pounds gives us a next year’s goal of 183 pounds. Doable? Certainly!

His seasonal (next three months) goal would be 6.06 pounds X 3 months =
18.18 pounds. Since putting 18.18 pounds on the bar is not that easy, let’s round the number up 20 pounds added to his present 110 gives us 130 pounds. Of course, his end of January goal would be 116 or more; end of February would be 122.5 or more; and his end of March would be 130 or more.

This athlete now has a clear picture of what it will take to ‘make his dream of Bench Pressing 310 his Senior year’ a reality. Every time he goes to the weightroom for a workout, he has a goal, a plan and a purpose. He knows exactly how he is doing. He is in competition only with his own best self.

The BFS/Be11 Happy New Week Resolutions Card will help the athlete with his weekly/daily decisions. On the front of the form in the Column: My BIG Dream next to Physical he would put 310 Bench Press (along with similarly worked out goals for the other CORE lifts). Then when he sits down to answer the question, “What is the most important thing for me to do this week to make my BIG Dream a reality?” he has it laid out in front of him on his Max Card. On the reverse side of the Weekly Resolutions Form he can map out his week’s activities for his five most important goals and chart his activities.