While the thought of New Year’s resolutions and goal setting may sound either daunting, or not really necessary, defining what you want to achieve is an extremely powerful process that will help you stay motivated and grow as a cyclist and athlete.
Goals will help you work harder, be more focused and overcome setbacks. If you’re still not convinced that you need to set goals for the New Year, here we explain the importance of goal setting and how to create achievable targets:
Why set goals?
1) Goals provide focus – with family, work and technology vying for our attention, it’s sometimes challenging to know where to focus your time and resources. Goal-setting will help you to focus your attention on your priorities.
2) Goals help you maintain motivation – setting yourself achievable targets encourage you to keep going. They enable you to see the bigger picture and give you motivation to take the steps to get there.
3) Goals make you accountable – they help you move from thought to action. Rather than just talking about signing up for that sportive, do it! This will mean you’ll have to put together a focused and specific training plan to ensure you’re in the best possible condition to take on the challenge
4) Goals help you become a better cyclist – they are designed to take you out of your comfort zone and to push the boundaries of what you thought you could achieve, making you do things you never thought possible.
5) Goals give you clarity – creating and manifesting small goals can help you achieve a much larger life vision; for example, completing a local sportive could contribute to your vision of one day completing an Olympic distance triathlon or a multi-stage ride in the Alps.