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Setting Goals Like An Athlete
Even if you’re not one.
I swam competitively for fifteen years. Swimming is a unique sport. It’s an individual sport that also masquerades as a team sport.
Sure, there are in-season dual meets against other teams. Coaches measure the team’s success in wins and losses, but the swimmers measure their success by their times in individual races.
Swimming fast times is where it’s at and setting goals at the beginning of the season is one of the tools swimmers use to get there.
Show me a swimmer, and I’ll show you someone who has their goal times doodled in the margins of their notebooks, taped to their lockers, and posted on their bulletin boards.
Why would we do these things?
Motivation.
We get up really early in the cold months of December, January, and February to swim in freezing cold water before we go to school, and then we do it again in the evening. Those goal times are the reasons we’re willing to put in the work. Like most things, you must put in the work to succeed in swimming.
So why am I telling you this?
Writing down goals and reviewing them often helps keep them at the forefront of your mind. It’s like a To-Do list for the year. You’re more likely to perform…
