New Year. New goals? How to remain on task, love the process and keep moving forward
Every-time December rolls around we find ourselves looking back on the year, what was and what could have been. At times we find ourselves motivated by our successes or driven by our failures, and we look to the future to replicate or change. Once January is here goals are written, targets set and plans made. However what happens in a time when plans change weekly? When goalposts are continually moved and nothing can be assumed? We have seen over the last year particularly for athletes there are no guarantees. Periodisation has been thrown in the air and we have become much more reactive than proactive, adjusting as we can to the situation around us.
So what I want to talk about is how goals and targets can be still set around these parameters, how you can continue to move forward and keep on task. About how looking deeper into what you want to achieve can keep you moving forward. Starting to look more at the process of the journey rather than the final destination.
I see a lot of athletes set goals and targets that are very outcome focused, they look at the end product and big picture rather than the work and journey along the way. For example, I’d like to finish in X place at a certain race or I’d like to qualify for x event. So the motivation can be quite external, driven by the performance and chance to toe the line and make the goal happen. However what if the event is 5/6 months away, cancelled or uncertain? That’s when we need to start looking deeper and the process of getting there. What will it take to podium? To qualify to go faster than last year? This is all quite obvious but I do feel it is often missed and not focussed on enough.
This is when the plan and goals can be even more focused and become process driven. You can look at previous results, splits, times and data and understand where you can begin to improve and work towards these bigger targets. This is where you can set smaller targets, goals and check points along the way. You can begin to have small wins on the way to a bigger goal and keep you motivated and engaged. For example you identify you need to run faster for the goal in mind, so you work on volume, building capacity and race pace efforts, ultimately if the race is cancelled, postponed or changed you are still a faster athlete, more developed and able to improve even more.
As athletes we love to be in control, if our goals and targets we have set our self are cancelled or changed this can affect our motivation and disrupt our training. However if we have control over these regardless of the situation you can continue to work towards these. This last year more than ever this has become crucial for athletes at all levels. So whilst ultimately we wish to perform or complete a race let’s look at the process of getting there day by day and remaining on task whilst situations change around us.
Ultimately nothing here is ground-breaking or new however last year seeing athletes falter and stress when races were cancelled or uncertain made me take a step back. Do we really love the process? Are we fully engaged on the small daily improvements? Can we keep focused on the work we do now benefitting the longer term future? Maybe re check those goals, those targets can you keep an element of control and achieve these regardless of what is thrown at us?
