Goal Setting is Sexy
Matt O’Connor
You’ve all heard the saying, ‘aim for the moon and you’ll hit the stars’? Personally, I hate it. I think it is overly corny and really doesn’t do much to inspire me! But there is a kernel of truth to this saying. Setting yourself a standard, or goals, is a critical part of anything you set out to accomplish. In this blog, I’ll give you some reasons why goal setting is sexy and a simple way to do it.
Everyone knows the feeling of trying to learn a new skill – be that in a sport like rock climbing or even how to program the latest thing to plug into your TV. It is easy to feel overwhelmed or like you aren’t getting anywhere when you are staring down the barrel of a long list of new things to learn. I’ve found this to be true with a lot of people in Adult Squad – we cover everything from start to finish and along the way, we expect that you will be able to pick it all up, which can often be quite daunting. That is where setting yourself goals is extremely important. Why do it? Well why not consult my handy list of dot points below…
- it gives you a clear sense of WHAT you want to achieve and HOW you are going to achieve it. Your training will be much more effective if you have a plan for your session on what you are hoping to achieve – even if that is “I don’t care about climbing too hard tonight, I just want to have some fun”. This is still a perfectly appropriate goal (and personally one of my favourites!).
- setting a number of small goals gives you a greater opportunity to experience success and be proud of your improvement. To set a goal of climbing a colour above your current grade might mean long months of training without any success. However setting a number of small goals that lead up to this gives you a boost of motivation at regular times.
- goal setting keeps you accountable! Sharing your goal with someone (or better yet, setting goals together) is another way to improve your chances of sticking to your plan
And next I hear you asking, what is the best way to do this? Well it’s simple, in fact it is…SMART!
S – pecific (does your goal say exactly what you want to do so it is crystal clear (e.g. “I want to be able to climb a green on the wave wall”)
M – easurable (can you say ‘yes I have done this’ or ‘no I have not’ e.g. “I want to do 2 laps on the purple climb”)
A – chievable (is this goal within your ability to do i.e. “do I have the physical/technical skills to achieve this goal or can I acquire these?”)
R – easlistic (is this goal within my means i.e. “do I have the time/resources to be able to achieve this goal?”)
T – ime-limited (set yourself a timeline for your goal. It doesn’t have to be set in stone and you can change it later but it is important to have a “check-in” date for your goal)
A challenge for you? Set yourself a few small goals each time you have a climb. Once you are comfortable with this, set yourself an overall goal and then break this down into smaller and smaller steps to outline how you are going to achieve it.
We’d love to hear what your goals are – leave us a comment and let us know your goals and how you are going with them! And if you have any questions, post away!