Have you written out your plan of how you’re going to achieve your goals?
It was crazy, the other day I was helping my mom clean, and I stumbled upon an essay that I wrote when I was in 8th grade about what I wanted to be when I grow up. In the composition, I said I wanted to be a pro soccer player, and I wanted to play in the world cup. I didn’t play in a world cup, but it was awesome to see my dreams became a reality. OF course, there are a lot of other steps that go into the process of being a pro, but I do think the first step is to write your goals physically. I believe there is power in words and visuals. I think it helps us process things better and makes us feel like this is indeed a possibility. I’ve always written down my goals, and I think it has helped tremendously. If you haven’t written down your goals, that's ok; today I’ll give you the three steps you must take to having your dreams become a reality!
- Write down your dreams and goals
The sky is the limit, and I always encourage players to dream big. The saying goes, " Shoot for the stars and if you miss you land on the clouds." You should believe in yourself and your ability because no one will genuinely care as much as you do. Not your friends, not your parents, not anyone. Others will never know if you're working hard enough. Others will never know how honest you're with yourself; others will never know how badly you want it. So don't waste time thinking about others and their opinions. Write down what it is you want from this game, and stick it on a mirror, or somewhere you look every day, so it can be a reminder as to why you do the work? This is a great start to continue to push yourself and never to take breaks!
- ACTION ACTION ACTION
Writing your dreams and goals down are great, but now there has to be written down action. If your goal was to say make your varsity soccer team. The action would be, work on my weak foot by kicking the ball against the wall 300 times every day. Another action would be shooting, so I need to take 200 shots every day. I need to get better at my quickness and feet preparation, so I'm going to do 20 minutes of work every day with the agility ladder. Do you see what I'm doing here? I'm taking the goal and then breaking it down into specifics, so I know exactly what I need to do every day. Make a list and hold yourself accountable to your plan, post this somewhere you look every day too!
- REFLECT, ACTION, REPEAT
Once you've done a few weeks of your specific goals training, you then have to decide what worked and what didn't. After that, you take new action, and you continue to repeat this method. This method keeps you honest with yourself, and it has you trying all different things to learn what precisely you need to do to improve.
