Goal Setting for Action Sports Athletes
Breaking down the best way to achieve your dreams
Are you achieving what you set out to achieve? Are you on the right path for YOU? How do you utilise the new year to refocus your energy, kickstart your motivation and move forwards in your sport?
CAN YOU achieve your goals?
Some Athletes have an absolute laser focus and the discipline to stay on that path. For most of us, our focus wavers. We get distracted, tired and unmotivated. Re-igniting our motivation, keeping the fire stoked, and always moving towards our goals is what helps us achieve greatness.
We will never know our full potential unless we push ourselves to find it. It's this self discovery that inevitably takes us to the wildest places on earth.
— Travis Rice
The less time we have to spend each day deciding what we need to be doing, the more energy we have to put into actually doing the work. Enter goal setting…
The cliche ‘New Year, New Me’
Use this time.
Although goal setting is a process I undertake whenever I’m feeling lost in my direction, the New Year gives a natural break and reset and so gives a perfect time to reflect and set new goals. Work/School slows and takes a break for the holidays, the world slows a bit, and we get a chance to think back on the year we’ve had. Did we have a good year? Are we where we wanted, or expected to be when we looked forwards from this time last year?
Did we work hard enough, or take enough time off work? Did we have a productive year? Are we HAPPY?
As we roll into January and the New Year gives us a 12 month timeframe to move closer to where we want to be, it’s worth taking a few days to asses exactly where we’re going, and make a plan to get there.
“What gets measured gets managed.” - Peter Drucker, author of The Effective Executive.
Can you manage your goals? If you measure them and set them out, then you can break them down and manage to achieve them.
“Conditions are never perfect. ‘Someday’ is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you.” – Tim Ferriss
7 Steps to Goal Kicking
The goal setting process the I use
Over the past few years I’ve been doing yearly and half-yearly goal setting practices. Each year this process has developed to be more efficient, in-depth and impactful and I apply it to my life as a whole as well as my skating and business. Action sports athletes are very similar to people who work for themselves. There’s rarely a team and coach behind you 24/7 to give structure to your days and the daily routine can be far more directed by filming missions, weather , opportunitie, and motivation. The life of an action sport athlete is less structured than traditional athletes. For this reason, I find that these 7 steps of goal setting help bring in useful structure. It breaks our big goals down into daily habits which helps bring us focus and motivation. And most important, helps us reach our goals!
“Tomorrow becomes never. No matter how small the task, take the first step now.” – Tim Ferriss
So, here’s what my 7 step process looks like:
Review my last year to properly asses areas of opportunity, risk, development and gratitude.
Set goals for the future and work backwards looking at top level goals for 20, 10, 5, 3, 2 and 1 year in the future.
Set top level goals for the year which act as an operating system to work by
Set specific goals for the year across a range of areas (sport, work, lifestyle, relationships, financial).
Break them down into quarterly, monthly and weekly actions.
Create a daily routine that works towards your goals and promotes action.
Review and Re-Iterate your goals as the year goes - Allow yourself to have a change in focus or circumstance.
There's no such thing as boundaries only limits that get pushed further and further. -
Travis Pastrana
Top tips:
Focus on actions rather than outcomes.
Consider which resources, tools and relationships you need to achieve your goals.
Add visualisation to your goals. Picture yourself achieving the goal and believing it will happen.
Ensure your goals are ‘SMART’ – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time bound.
Quick Summary
Take time out to set goals so the effort you put in drives you in the right direction.
Review what worked and didn’t work from last year.
Start big and slowly bring the focus in from 30 year big goals to what small step you will take tomorrow.
Get after it. You can move the needle and make big things happen.
Next Steps for You
Listen to the audio episode of this article on the ‘Make It Happen’ Podcast for Athletes from ESM.
Need a more hands on approach? We can guide you through with our Athlete Direction Package:
Additional Goal Setting Resources
Watch
‘FEAR Setting’ - This technique from Tim Ferriss is a great addition to goal setting as it helps overcome any fears for taking action you might have.
Check it out here: https://tim.blog/2017/05/15/fear-setting/
Read
‘The Art of Impossible’ - By Steven Kotler
”In The Art of Impossible, Steven Kotler has managed to articulate what many peak performers intuitively know but can't explain: that there's a formula for impossible. Kotler demystifies the mythic, breaking down that formula and giving readers exactly the tools they need to accomplish their dreams, no matter how big.” - Laird Hamilton
Check it out here: https://www.theartofimpossible.com
Listen
‘THE SCIENCE OF SETTING & ACHIEVING GOALS’ - Huberman Lab Podcast - In this episode Dr. Huberman discusses the science of setting, assessing, and pursuing goals. He covers a range of topics around goal setting including visualisation, multi-tasking, and rewards. Ever since Huberman had an episode on The Nine Club and we heard more about his skating background he’s felt much more relatable. I’d highly recommend giving him a listen.
Check it out here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/huberman-lab/id1545953110?i=1000548096071