Long Term Goal Setting
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During my 25+ years within the sports industry, I have worked with a vast array of athletes with varying degrees of talent and personalities. Upon reflection, the key attributes that separate those who progress towards their potential as opposed to those who don't, are discipline, motivation, and a conscientious attitude towards training and competing - plus a bit of natural talent obviously doesn't hurt!
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But what helps an athlete create this mindset? Goal setting is a well known and researched strategy, and the science behind it suggests that it's arguably the most effective performance enhancing psychological strategy available! However, despite the vast supporting evidence of the benefits of goal setting, it's estimated that only around 10% of the population who take the time to set goals actually stick to them. That figure seems crazy when you consider the weight of evidence behind its effectiveness. So why the discrepancy?
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One possible reason that we have already addressed is the failure to follow the appropriate guidelines when setting goals. A further limitation is that athletes when athletes choose a goal, they often fail to narrow their actions down to the day to day activities that are required to obtain the goal.
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The act of long term goal setting can be viewed as a top-down process, starting with your outcome goal and working your way down to your day-to-day process goals. The below is a basic example (for a golfer) of the steps involved, but you can view a more in-depth example - Long Term Goal Setting Worksheet - which includes setting goals over multiple months.
Outcome Goal
Country Representation
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Performance GOal
Average score 72 or less (top 80%)
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Map the Gap
Improve Technique (practise)
Increase Clubhead MPH (speed stick)
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Practise Goal
TrackMan Skill Test Score 80+ (practise)
Clubhead Speed 110MPH+ (training)
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Process Goal
Practise Session 5 x PW
Speed Stick Training 4 x PW
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Outcome
write down the outcome goal that you would like to achieve.
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Performance
what performance goals do you think you need to achieve for you to attain your outcome goal? A performance goal is a measure of performance you can use for competition.
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E.g., if a golfer averages a gross score of 72 or less in competitions, they are likely to be playing at a level that will gain selection for their county. I.e., if they hit that performance goal, they will attain their outcome goal.
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Map the Gap
once you have established your performance goal, it's vital that you ask the following questions.
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How am I going to obtain the performance goal/s?
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What do you need to improve upon?
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What strategies are you going to implement to close the gap? (shown in brackets).
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E.g. a golfer may need to improve their technique. The strategies that the golfer can use to improve technique is to practise, get coaching, etc.​
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Practise
including practice goals in the goal setting process is very important. Athletes spend much more time practising than they do competing. If we didn't use practise goals there would be too much time between performances, which could affect our motivation, and reduce our ability to track progress and assess whether we are closing our performance gap. Practise goals also allow us to test our skills within a pressured simulated competition environment (e.g. simulation tests), so we can test out the effects of our training before heading into competition.
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Your practise goals are derived from the strategies that you listed in Map the Gap. E.g. if a golfer sets a goal of a score of 80+ on a TrackMan Test (simulation test), this would show they have improved their technique (closed their gap), making it more likely that they will obtain their performance goal.
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Process
these are the goals that you have complete control over. They are the day to day behaviours that fill your diary. The actions you need to complete to have a chance of obtaining your goals. The activities fill your day to day diary. 'The difference between who you are now and who you want to be is what you do' - Bill Phillips.
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Your process goals are derived from your practice goals. What do you need to do on a daily basis that will help you obtain your goal? E.g. to improve my technique I need to practice 5 x per week for a minimum of 3 hours.
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The above example illustrates how the different types of goals work together in creating your goal setting platform. The mistake most people make with goal setting, is they do not spend the time narrowing their outcome goal to the day to day activities (where your primary focus needs to be) that are required to reach it.
Having a goal setting platform provides you with a structured template that encourages motivation and feedback alongside your developmental process. The Long Term Goal Setting Worksheet and Goal Setting Diary are practical tools in the Goal Setting Worksheets section that are designed to help you create your goal setting platform which can be applied with multiple goals across multiple months.
