Goal Setting

I start out every year writing my goal time for my favorite event, the 50 free. I put it somewhere that I can see it every day. In high school, I used to craft a cheesy college of pictures of some of my favorite professional swimmers, put the my goal time in the middle and make it my computer background. It was my little reminder of what I was working for the whole season.

Now I have white boards all around my desk in my apartment. I have one where I write my swim goal for Nationals every year. I leave it there till it's achieved and then I reset it.

Here is my white board with my goal times for the 2014-2015 season. It's gotten a bit beat up as it moves between apartments with me. 

I honestly forgot that I reset the times the week I got home from Nationals last year to be a 25.1 in my individual and to make the top 10. I looked it this week and had a bit of a surreal moment when I realized that I beat that time and goal this year.

I remember sitting down to write it thinking how lofty it was, but that it never hurts to dream big. I was a little afraid to write it because part of me didn't think I could do it. Now I look at it with immense pride in my achievements. I do plan to change it soon, but for now I like being able to look back and smile. All of my hard work and discipline paid off and I was able to do something that sophomore-year me thought was impossible.

In one of my lower level journalism classes, we watched this ad from the London Olympics. It features Rebecca Soni breaking her breaststroke record and a young swimmer reacting by lowering her written goal time. During the class discussion, we talked about what made this ad special. I said it really hit home for me because this is something myself and many other swimmers actually do as a motivational technique. AT&T explains the making of the commercial here.