How High Performance Athletes Set Goals
January is often the most popular time of year for people to set goals, fuelled by vision boards and New Year’s resolutions. Goal setting is widely recognised as a powerful tool for success – some would even argue it’s essential. However, many of these goals are created in a burst of post-Christmas motivation and excitement as the New Year begins. As a result, they are often unsustainable, unrealistic, or poorly thought through. By the time March arrives, many people are left wondering why they haven’t stuck to their resolutions. The issue isn’t a lack of ambition, but an overreliance on motivation to drive consistent action, whether that’s committing to fitness goals, shaving time off a 5km run, or growing a business.
The difference between high-performance athletes and the rest of the population and a critical factor that sets them apart is their mindset – having the determination to keep pushing even when motivation begins to drop.They don’t rely on New Year’s motivation, bold promises, or vague ambition to achieve their goals. Instead they build goals that survive bad days, pressure, and unfortunate setbacks.
When athletes begin to set goals like a high-performance system, invaluable results can be seen as training begins to have a clear focus and results start to become visible. This allows the athletes confidence to flourish as they begin to achieve small wins.
A strong example of this put into action is the ‘SRA Way’ long-term athlete development pathways – a foundation built on clear goals, smart progression, and measurable accomplishments. Programs like the Junior Athlete Development 8-Week Program are designed around this system, leading young athletes through an eight-week pathway that doesn’t just promise results, but educates them along the way. Through pre- and post-performance testing, athletes see tangible improvements in speed, strength, agility, and power, while learning the correct warm-up and cool-down protocols, how to maximise recovery, and train with purpose, developing foundational movement skills that translate directly to better performance on the court or field, increased self-belief, and a reduced risk of injury. This is what goal-driven development looks like in action, not just training harder, but training with purpose, structure, and a clear path forward.
When setting goals, many athletes use the S.M.A.R.T goal setting strategy and this is something you should be using too! The SMART in SMART goals stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. This is an effective frameworking for goal setting used by many elite athletes, a proven system used by elite athletes to turn ambition into actionable progress.
Specific involves defining in detail, exactly what it is you want to achieve; what is involved, where it will happen, avoiding vagueness or uncertainties. For example, “improve my 5km race time by 90 seconds,” is far more effective than just “get faster”.
If a goal is measurable, it has concrete criteria to track progress and know exactly when you’ve succeeded. In this case, time provides an objective and reliable measure.
The goal must also be achievable, providing the right balance of being challenging enough to drive improvement, yet realistic enough to be attainable.
Equally important is whether the goal is relevant, aligning with your long-term development and overall performance objectives so that every effort contributes meaningfully to your progression as an athlete.
Finally, all goals should be time-bound. Setting a clear timeframe creates urgency, structure, and accountability, helping athletes stay focused and consistent. A defined deadline – such as improving a 5km time within eight or twelve weeks provides direction for training, allows progress to be reviewed, and makes success clearly identifiable.
Goal setting isn’t about relying on motivation or hoping good intentions will carry you through the year, it’s about creating sustainable habits that last, even during those dark winter months when motivation begins to fade. High-performance athletes succeed because their goals are clear, intentional, and supported by daily actions, not just bursts of inspiration.
Whether you’re a developing junior athlete, or a more experienced high performer, or even simply striving to perform better in other aspects of your life, adopting a structured approach like SMART goals and following a proven development pathway can be the difference between progress and the lack thereof. When goals are set with purpose, measured consistently, and built on a strong foundation, results are guaranteed to follow. Set your goals the athlete’s way and give yourself a clear path not just to start strong, but to finish stronger because a goal without a plan in place is only a wish!