“Score Big: How Writing Down Goals Helps Athletes Succeed”
"Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible." - Tony Robbins
A new emphasis is being placed on the mental aspect of sports as a means of achieving a competitive edge. Among the many useful mental training techniques, writing down goals has shown to be one of the most effective tools for boosting performance.
A study published in the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology found that athletes who wrote down their goals had significantly higher levels of performance than those who didn't do so. That's right, simply putting pen and paper to work.
As reported on CNBC's “Make It” series, athletes, including 23-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps use this technique to stay focused on their goals.
“I write my goals down on a piece of paper, I have to see something for why I’m getting up in the morning and what I’m doing that day,” he explained on CNBC Make it.
But what is so special about writing down your goals? Neuroscience has shown that doing so, has the ability to boost an athlete's motivation, focus, and inspire him or her to dream bigger.
According to Forbes, this technique is effective because it has an impact on two psychological levels: external storage and encoding.
That is, when you write your objectives down, this serves as a tangible reminder to work towards them. Your goals get stored in a physical location that can be accessed anytime (external storage). Furthermore, writing helps to reinforce ideas into your brain and transition them into your long-term memory (encoding). The more you write, the more you'll remember and the more you'll truly believe in the objectives you've set for yourself.
Writing down goals then is a powerful tool that can help athletes reach new heights of performance. By externalizing and encoding them into the subconscious mind, they can stay motivated, focused, and committed.
Whether you're an Olympic athlete or a weekend warrior, get out a pen and a piece of paper and write down your objectives. Doing so, could be the key to taking your performance to the next level!
Works Cited
Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2002). Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: A 35-year odyssey. American Psychologist, 57(9), 705-717.
M and T Horne (2021). Mental Toughness for Young Athletes. Book. Amazon Kindle.