Goal Setting

Swimming can get boring if you do the same thing every time, or if you don’t have a goal to aim for. In “Swimming for Exercise” by Greg Whyte, he gives a few suggestions on how to keep swimming interesting. His first tip is to make goals, short term and long term. Your short term goal should be achievable with every practice or up to a month and can include swimming a specific distance or making a certain send off. While a long term goal should be a couple of months to a year and could consist of weight loss, improving your strength, or getting a specific race time (Whyte 69). I connected this to my swimming in the Kentridge season because my coach had us fill out a goals sheet at the beginning of the year. On my sheet, I made a short term goal that involved my daily practice. My goal was to have good turns off the wall and to come up after the flags. My long term goal was to get qualifying times by the end of the season as to move onto post-season.

Once you reach your goals, it is necessary that you reward yourself. It is also helpful to have something to look forward to that will motivate you to achieve your goal. Whyte says “Reward yourself when you reach your goals (both short-term and long-term). Make sure the reward is something that you really want, but do not allow yourself to have it if you have not reached your goal” (69).  He also says that short term goals should be smaller rewards such as staying an extra hour in bed while a long term goal can be larger such as new clothing. Whyte makes it clear to avoid rewarding yourself with food because that may stray you from your goals (69). When I was setting my goals and once I made them, I had a hard time finding something to reward myself with other than food because I am very motivated by food. Rather than getting food as my reward, I tried using other things such as sleeping in because I worked hard at practice for my short term goal. For my long term goal, I rewarded myself with a practice new suit that I had been wanting. By getting the new swim suit, it not only rewarded me making my goal but it also motivated me to go swimming more because I wanted to wear it.

I got my suit from: http://usa.jolynclothing.com/

What are your favorite incentives for making goals? Or if you don’t have any what do you plan to make them?

Citation

Whyte, Gregory P., and Eddie Jacob. Swimming for Exercise. Richmond Hill, Ont.: Firefly, 2011. Print.