Goal Setting and How To Plan

by Ingrid Kristiansen

Ingrid Kristiansen is the current holder of the world fastest half marathon, and at one time held world records in 5k, 10k, half marathon and marathon concurrently. She teaches a holistic system of mental and physical training - for more information see the EBAS web site.

Why do you need to have a goal?

Think about your goal, whatever it is, - as a geographical place. To reach your goal, you have to define the position of your goal, this enables you to navigate right towards the goal. We use the lighthouse as a symbol for the goal setting and planning work, it tells you where to navigate - to reach your goal or goals. The main objective with the goal setting and planning work is to repeat and repeat the plan and goal.

Research done on former Harvard students concluded very clearly that those students that were planning their life and career where accomplishing much more than those students without any plan or goal. By doing many repetitions and repetitions in your planning work, you will gradually build dominant "memory traces or files" in your brain (subconscious). Your goal and plan will then gradually be accepted by you, - both on your conscious level, but also on your subconscious level.

This sounds a bit silly, but this is a normal reaction, it takes time to get used to this new way of thinking and working. Just think about your self and your life, how many times haven't you told yourself that this is easy to do, - but with the result that it did not help just to say and make the statement, - this is easy. The difference is that, - it is not a one time job to change and convince oneself about anything, it is a process that need some time.

The challenge is that you do not believe that you are able to do this or this just by expressing the statement one time: this is easy to do! The strange thing here is that you need a conviction not only on your conscious level, but also on your subconscious level. It is this acceptance on your subconscious level that need some more time, and most people are not aware of his.

How to define your goal(s)!

You should always have an ambitious goal, you should be "stretched" a bit in your work. But remember a goal is always subjective, what is ambitious for you does not mean it has to be ambitious for others, and it can be totally out of reach for other people. If your goal is too low relative to your level, you can experience to reach your goal too easy. On the other hand if you put your goal on a totally unrealistic level, you can end up by not being even close to your goal, with just frustration as the end product.

Your goal should be as concrete as possible, and it should be possible to quantify your goal one way or other. Then you are able to get feedback on your progress towards your goal, and you are able to adjust if you do not get the expected effect. At the same time, the goal should be ambitious but also realistic within the framework properties available and possible for you. Few of us are planning to set world records, but for some it is a realistic goal. With other words, the goal has to be close to your comfort zone.

If it is too far away, your inner protest will be too strong. Your goal have to be close to your self confidence, if not, - it is much harder to get acceptance for your goal. In sport this means that you have to work both physically as mentally. In a professional work you have to work hard and parallel with your work content in addition to your "mental" goal and planning work.

On your progress towards the goal you should have several temporary goals or call it part-goals. These temporary goals will then take you step by step towards your final goal. By splitting up like this there will always be a part-goal in the near future to focus on in addition to the long term and final goal. The final goal should have realistic time frames, if not it will only produce frustrations.

Normally we have two types of goals, result goals and process goals. A result goal specifies a concrete goal like "I shall win that competition" or "I will have this specified result in that competition". The challenge with this type of goal is that the result is dependant of many factors outside your control, like the competitors, the weather, the organizer etc. Because of this, it is useful to have more than only one result goal, you should in addition have some process goals as parts of the final result goal. By including these process goals your motivation will be better, after all there is little you can do with the weather, competitors etc.

The process goals are describing goals that you are in full control of, it can be your skill, technique, your time spending or priorities etc. Normally we therefore recommend you to use both types of goals, where the final result goal then will make the basis for the underlying process goals. This process you should define in a consequence analysis with basis in the status of today, and then define what skill and qualities or process goals, you have to develop in the process to end up with the final result goal.

Start with a life plan for yourself where you make a vision statement of what you want to achieve in your life. Your life vision makes the fundamental basis for your goal and your planning. The plan should have as mentioned realistic time frames, and it should have part-goals spread evenly over the whole time frame. Such a plan will of course cover a long time period, it can easily be over several years. Remember to include your family in your plan, that is also part of the holistic way of thinking, and split up your plan down to daily work lessons.

How to reach your goal or goals?

You have to repeat your goal again and again to create an acceptance for your goal on both your conscious and your subconscious level. When you have succeeded with this, you will suddenly or gradually experience a breakthrough, that things actually start to happen, - you will reach your part goal or final goal.

What clear and concrete goals actually are doing with us?

Your plan and goal setting work will help your motivation drive. At the same time it will hopefully put a positive pressure on you in the daily work. The plan and goal setting work will give an edge to and commit you to go for it, your final goal. At the same time the whole process will increase awareness and be a good maturing proceeding.

This process will change your conduct and personality, and it will improve your results whatever they are. Remember to include deviation and disturbances in your planning and goal setting work, you are guaranteed that unexpected things will happen on your way towards your goal. By including this in your planning you will hopefully tackle the unexpected better when it comes, and we guarantee you, they will always come.

Cool Running 28.11.00. Ingrid Kristiansen can be contacted at ebas@c2i.net. This article first appeared on the Helhetstrening web site http://www.ingrid-kristiansen.com/ and is reproduced by permission of the author.