Читать книгу Sports Psychology For Dummies - Leif H. Smith - Страница 44

In addition to being specific, your goals need to be challenging. They should push you beyond your comfort level and be slightly out of your reach. Setting your goals slightly out of reach, or slightly higher than you originally plan, ensures that you’ll be motivated to chase them and improve along the way.

If you set goals that are too easy, you’ll become bored, you’ll lose motivation, and you won’t improve. You may feel good for a while — “Wow, I’m good — I’m accomplishing so many things!” — but this feeling won’t last.

Have you ever noticed how much better you play when you play against athletes who are better than you? Yes, it’s difficult, and your ego may take a bruising, but look how much you improve.

At the same time, make sure you aren’t setting unrealistic goals. A goal to become a state champion or make the national team may be challenging and realistic for some, but it may not be realistic for you where you are now. If you set this goal and expect it too soon, you may end up feeling frustrated and losing motivation. You’re getting better — maybe much better — but you won’t see it because you’re focused on a goal that’s beyond your reach.

You want to set goals that are challenging enough to motivate you, but not so unrealistic that they discourage you. For example, we both challenge each athlete we work with to set goals slightly above what they think they can achieve. This goes back to the courage to aim high and dream big! Instead of just making the lineup, aim to be a starter. Instead of performing well, work to become all-conference. Higher goals build confidence, and they also push you to think and dream bigger in your pursuit of becoming a better athlete.