My cousin has a five-year-old daughter who is the best. She loves playing football (even more than she loves her bright pink football boots). She brings the passion (in truck loads), and he guides her as well as he can to help her use her enthusiasm as smartly as possible.
She recently told her Dad she wants to score a goal before the end of the winter. However, she is the only girl on her team. And so, naturally, during games there is a temptation for her to distance herself from the action at times. After observing this tendency, my cousin playfully set his daughter the target of touching the ball at least 10 times a match to encourage her to get more involved and to help her achieve her goal of finding the back of the net.
In the next game she played, she never scored a goal but she did touch the ball 17 times. Time will tell whether she achieves her goal of getting her name on the scoresheet before the end of the season. But she sure is heading in the right direction.
I love this story for how simply it highlights the power of good goal-setting in sport and also for how it emphasises that outcome orientated thinking must be supported by process orientated thinking.
The Importance of Processes
Most are familiar with SMART goals. The framework used to create specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound objectives. And this framework certainly isn’t wrong. It does indeed provide useful pointers on how to set good goals.
However, it doesn’t touch on the importance of process.
When it comes to goal-setting, I like to differentiate between outcome orientated goals and process orientated goals… in addition to using the SMART framework.
An outcome-orientated goal is a target or objective that focuses on a desired outcome at the conclusion of a match, season, competition, or tournament. So my cousin’s daughter’s goal to find the back of the net before the end of the season is an example of an outcome orientated goal.
Whereas a process orientated goal focuses on the actions, steps, and methods involved in achieving a particular outcome rather than solely on the outcome itself. So, the target my cousin set his daughter to try and touch the ball 10 times in every match she plays in to help her achieve her primary goal of scoring before the end of the season is an example of a process orientated goal.
Errors in Goal-Setting
A common mistake in goal-setting that I often see is when athletes and teams focus all their energy on outcomes and not enough on processes. Every batter wants to be the league’s top run-scorer, every rugby team wants to win the knock-out trophy, every goalkeeper wants to have the most clean-sheets, and every tennis player wants to win the tournament. But very few set process orientated goals that they can focus on that will help them achieve these outcome orientated goals.
Outcome orientated goals are highly effective in motivating, focussing, and giving athletes purpose – they are extremely powerful in this sense. But merely having outcome orientated goals is not enough. They must be supported by process orientated goals that strategically drive the behaviours that are required to achieve the outcome orientated goals.
As such, I encourage the athletes and teams that I work with to have at least three process orientated goals for every one outcome orientated goal they set themselves. I believe that those who couple dreams, aspirations, and ambitions (outcome orientated goals) with strategy, planning, and method (process orientated goals) give themselves the best chance of success.
The Closing Word
Good goal-setting in sport is a vital component of the high performance formula. By having process orientated goals that support the realisation of our outcome orientated goals, we ensure that our hearts are inspired, our mind is focussed, and that our behaviours are strategic and deliberate. The magic lies in the “what” we want to achieve. While the genius lies in the “how” we want to achieve it.
