Set goals to get goals: sowing seeds for success with goal setting

Sports coaches encourage us to be active, alert, and to get things done quickly; they also advise us to relax, be patient, and do things slowly. With these changing instructions, we need a system to do things at our own pace. In sport psychology, we call this system goal setting. Goal setting means establishing a target that you want to achieve. When your goals are specific, achievable, and challenging, you feel motivated. Getting a glass of water from the kitchen might be specific and achievable but not challenging, whereas training for the nationals in three months' time might challenge you, but you might not know precisely how or when to train. In this article, we introduce a goal-setting system that can help you to set and achieve the goals that matter most to you.