As a Consultant Sport Psychologist with the Irish Institute of Sport, and a Registered Psychologist with the Psychological Society of Ireland (PSI), I am often asked how can individuals from many performance backgrounds (i.e., athletes, coaches, dancers, business managers, students, to name but a few) improve their performances.
I think it is important to remember that when individuals make the decision to make a change aspects of their lives, in an effort to achieve better results, the goals should start off small, with phrases such as ‘consistency’ and ‘excellence’ dominating the conversation, rather than ‘perfection’. Perfection, while really only a word beginning with the letter P, it often has the ability to elicit fear, pressure and stress on those who hear it. Seeking excellence, I think, allows individuals to strive for better performances. Seeking excellence leaves room for setbacks and failures along the journey toward such excellent performances, as such challenges are invariably experienced by us all, at some stage in life. It is often said that we learn more from our failures than we do from our successes, and after all, what does the word ‘FAIL’ mean? Perhaps we should view it as a ‘First Attempt In Learning’? Wouldn’t it be great if we could all view this little word as such, when faced with the bitter taste it can leave in the mouths and minds of many, following disappointing performances?
To many individuals, athletes are often viewed, and described, as ‘tough’, ‘competitive’ and ‘winners’. Many assume they do not suffer from the mental health difficulties, disappointments and failures that others are susceptible to. However, this view could not be further from the truth, as individuals such as Niall Breslin and Richie Sadlier have admitted recently at various public events. Such former elite, and current sporting heroes for many, have admitted to struggling with the same doubts and fears as the rest of the non-sporting population. Such is the nature of the human mind. It is capable of great things, but it is also designed to be like a ‘disco ball’, with thoughts and dreams ‘flying around’ in all directions. We can all benefit greatly from learning ways to ‘direct’ those light beams, and ‘shine’ them where we want them to shine, like a spot light shining on an performer on a stage.
Over the coming months, I hope to provide you with some helpful hints, and research findings, that might help you to understand, and control, where your ‘mental spotlight shines’ as cited above, in order to help you ‘light up that lust for life’, which we all experience at certain times in our lives. Achieving personal performance goals, be they sport, or non-sport, related may really help you to ‘light up’, and that is what this project is all about, helping you to achieve challenging, and important, goals for you, in order to re-awaken your lust for life. So, my first piece is on just that, what I mentioned above, goal setting, and good goal setting at that, to ignite your lust for life.
Everyone thinks they can goal set, however, many of us are surprisingly poor at doing this task. One of the best ways to set the ‘right’ kind of goals, is to follow the SMART principle, or the SCAMP principle – see John Kramer and Aidan Moran’s (2013) text, Pure Sport: Practical Sport Psychology, for more information on these goal setting strategies. However, the message delivered within both principles is this: Set goals that are Specific (i.e., running the Dublin City Marathon next October-2016…. NOT ‘running more’), Measurable (i.e., make sure you can measure whether you have achieved this goal or not), Action-based (i.e., make the goal one that is an activity – i.e., running the marathon) / or Attainable, in others words, make your goals Realistic (i.e., completing the marathon is fine, you are not expected to win it!), and Time-phased (i.e., set a date for the goal to be achieved by i.e., by the end of October 2016). Once this ‘main’, long-term goal is set, you can then use the principle again to set medium-, and short-term, goals for yourself. These will help you to get to the start, and finish, line of the marathon, for example. These goals could be training run distances (i.e., a 3k run tonight), and they can have time-related targets also (i.e., a 3k run tonight, and completing the run in less than 15 minutes). These short-term, weekly goals will help to keep you focused on your main goal (i.e., running the marathon in October 2016). They will also keep you motivated, and challenged, over the next 12 months as you train for the marathon.
I hope these goal setting tips have been useful as you start to set your own goals for the coming year. If you wish to receive more information on these types of mental skills tips to improve performances, you can watch out for more of my contributions on this website, or you can find me on Twitter @DrOliviaHurley. Best of luck to you all with your goal setting in the days, and months, ahead!
If my mind can conceive it and my heart can believe it, then I can achieve it’ – Mohammad Ali
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