As the calendar flips to a new year, it’s the perfect time to reflect, refocus, and set the tone for the months ahead. Athletes, coaches, and parents all have unique roles in creating a foundation for success. Whether you’re striving to achieve personal bests, support your athlete’s development, or guide a team to new heights, the principles of recognizing wins and training your mind to focus on progress are game-changers. Here’s how to get started.
Celebrate the Wins—Big and Small
One of the most overlooked aspects of progress is the power of recognizing your victories. Wins don’t have to be monumental; they can be as simple as showing up to every practice in a week, nailing a new technique, or maintaining a positive attitude during a tough session.
Why This Matters:
Acknowledging wins helps build momentum and motivation.
It rewires your brain to notice what’s working instead of fixating on shortcomings.
It creates a culture of gratitude and positivity, which is vital for long-term success.
How to Practice:
Start or end each day by jotting down one win in a journal.
Use team meetings or family dinners to share recent successes.
Celebrate progress publicly within your team or support group.
Focus on Progress, Not Perfection
While it’s natural to aim for perfection, true growth happens when you learn to value progress. Progress is about incremental improvements over time. By shifting your focus, you reduce the pressure of “getting it all right” and embrace the journey instead.
Steps to Shift Your Mindset:
Define Progress: Identify what progress looks like in your sport or role. It might be shaving fractions of a second off your time, building strength, or improving communication within a team.
Track It: Create systems to measure progress, such as a training log, video reviews, or feedback sessions.
Reflect Often: Regularly evaluate how far you’ve come. Progress is often most visible when viewed over weeks or months, not days.
Setting High-Hard Goals for 2025
High-Hard Goals are ambitious, meaningful, and intrinsically motivating objectives that guide your actions and provide a clear vision for the future. To make them actionable:
Clarify Your Vision: What is your ultimate goal for 2025 and even beyond that to 2 - 3 years from now? Perhaps it’s qualifying for nationals, being selected for a national team or improving mental resilience.
Break It Down: Reverse engineer your goal remembering that small daily wins add up. Create a goal stack with these steps:
High-Hard Goal: Something big and scary for 2 - 3 years from now.
Annual Milestone: Improve your 200m freestyle time by 2 seconds in 12 months.
Quarterly Steps: Shave 0.5 seconds off every 3 months.
Monthly Actions: Focus on improving turns and starts.
Weekly Goals: Refine breathing patterns and increase endurance sets.
Build Habits to Support Your Goals
Big goals require small, consistent actions. These actions, when repeated daily, become habits that define your identity as an athlete.
How to Build Effective Habits:
Start Small: Choose 2-3 habits to focus on weekly.
Use a Tracker: Monitor your progress with a simple habit tracker. For example:
Stretch every morning.
Visualize before practice.
Drink enough water daily.
Stay Consistent: Remember, habits are about consistency, not intensity. James Clear’s Atomic Habits emphasizes this beautifully.
Reprogram Your Subconscious for Success
The power of your subconscious mind cannot be underestimated. By incorporating affirmations and repetition, you can create a mental blueprint for success.
Tools for Subconscious Reprogramming:
Affirmations: Create a list of affirmations aligned with your goals (e.g., “I am strong, focused, and capable”) and repeat them daily.
Visualization: Spend a few minutes each day visualizing yourself achieving your goals.
Consistency: Use Dr. Maltz’s concept of 21 days to create and reinforce new mental patterns.
Join the Complete Athlete 8-Week Performance Program
Ready to take your mental game to the next level? Our 8-week Complete Athlete Performance Program kicks off on January 27th. This program is designed to help athletes gain clarity, confidence, and control over their performance. With limited spaces available, you don’t want to miss this opportunity to build momentum for 2025.
Don’t wait—secure your spot today! Email tracey@suiatpc.com or call 0833991205 to learn more and register. Let’s make 2025 your best year yet.
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