When you start running for the first time, or after a few years of stopping, the first results are often exciting. If you start from a very low fitness level, with a little sacrifice you will see, within a short time, both improvement in your rhythms and a reduction in weight. After the first few weeks, if you keep persisting with the same workouts and distances, the benefits will gradually diminish. The risk around the corner is always that of a drop in motivation.
For this reason, it is never convenient to run “by the day” but it is important to find goals now. With a clear goal you get the best training and, most importantly, you can choose the workouts that will be useful to accompany you to the finish line. In my work, thinking in terms of goals is the first step in any journey, whatever the starting level.
What characteristics should your target have?
- Defined. It must be clear and determined, such as a precise time over 5 km or a marathon. It can also be the number of pounds you wish to lose.
- Date. The time horizon must be certain. You should not set a goal without a time in which to achieve it because that would not be challenging enough. Bind yourself to a deadline and you will see that you will be even more determined and disciplined on your path.
- Consistent. The correct goal is compatible with your physical and mental characteristics and above all it must meet your passions, which are an inexhaustible engine of so many journeys.
- Individual. A goal cannot be random and cannot coincide with that of your friend or teammate. It must start from your ideas and desires. Only if you can individualize it by making it YOURS will you have that inner leverage that will help you face each day, even the most difficult ones. An externally imposed purpose has less impact on your will.
- Reach. The goal must be within your grasp by the deadline you have chosen to reach it. Goals without logic are uninspiring in the long run. A goal is not in itself impossible, but it can become so if the time you have to train is not enough to meet minimum requirements. When you choose a goal, figure out right away how you can organize your week to devote the right amount of energy to family, work, study, social relationships and sports. Only then will you realize whether the goal you set for yourself is achievable.
- Ambitious. When you choose the goal you must always keep the bar high. The right target audience is one that can bring out the best in you. You don’t have to win the Olympics, but you do need to stimulate your passion for the sport and your determination toward a goal that, day by day, becomes closer and closer. I don’t think it is essential to achieve every goal. I get more excited about a performance growth generated by the desire to achieve an ambitious result even if it was later not achieved. I am less excited about the successes of those who did not need to pull out their 101% to get to the finish line.
- Measurable. At the finish line and at every moment of your preparation you need to be able to tell whether you have reached or are reaching your goal. This is not difficult for you who measure yourself daily with the stopwatch. A measurable purpose helps you know if you are going in the right direction during preparation. You will always be able to tell through tests or preparation competitions how close you are to your goal.
- Exclusive. It is always very important to focus one’s energies toward the most important projects. You must avoid wasting and dissipating your energy with less important goals. If you have decided to finish a marathon dedicate yourself to that without participating in many other events or activities that involve different performance patterns. You can only do it when it is consistent and useful for a certain stage of your preparation. Focusing our strengths and attention on a single target has always been a factor in our success.
Get organized!
Once the goal has been chosen, the next step concerns organization. In professional life, no goal can be achieved without organizing time and resources. In sports, exactly the same thing happens: when I first meet an athlete, I spend more time figuring out with him or her how to organize their week than I do doing the initial testing. You need to analyze your schedule well to identify the hours you can devote to training with some certainty, keeping in mind that you are not a professional so you will never have absolute certainty. Once you have identified the number of hours per week you need to figure out how and where you train and in which sports, if you train on different disciplines such as triathlon. This is a strategy that works because it allows you to best plan your activities. The opposite strategy, which is widespread among amateur athletes, of training as much as possible when there is an opportunity is much less effective because it lacks well-structured planning. Sometimes with the random system you achieve more training volume but without a precise line you get less results. A goal, without a concrete plan to achieve it, will remain only a dream.
What do I do if it goes wrong?
In all these constructive and positive aspects you have to acquire an important skill: handling the negative outcome. Failure is part of the game in the world of sports competition. You will not always achieve your goals, but this should not alter your motivation. Mistakes and failures represent important moments of growth, occasions when we can learn something. When it happens, you will have to take responsibility for what happened by trying to understand what happened and why. The purpose is to prevent a negative outcome from happening again.
The right goal, backed by organization, discipline and motivation will lead you to success whatever your starting point. With these assumptions, you can only get better.
(Credit Main Image: PixelsAway on DepositPhotos.com)