How have you started your new year? Have you set yourself some good old New Year's resolutions? Is there a difference between New Year's resolution and goal-setting?

Many of us might use New Year’s resolutions as a promise to themselves what behaviours and actions to keep, to start, change and let go of in the next year. Changing something about our behaviour and actions is often easier when we have a certain event or change of environment happening which separates an event into "before and after" (such as the new year). With Christmas and the beginning of a new year a lot of people have had some time-off work and hopefully have also left the stress behind that built up before Christmas to get everything done in time. During such slower times it often is a lot easier to reflect back on the past and mobilise new energy from new goals for the future.

In that sense, New Year’s resolutions don’t differ much from normal goal-setting. And as climbers we are all probably quite familiar with setting goals:
🧗🏼‍♀️ I want to climb my first 7a during this upcoming climbing trip.
🧗🏼‍♀️ I want to make finals in the Olympics.
🧗🏼‍♀️ I want to improve my finger strength this year.
🧗🏼‍♀️ I want to go climbing at least twice a week.
🧗🏼‍♀️ I want to train at home three times a week in order to maintain fitness while my gym is closed.

Do goals like this sound familiar?

A goal is a desired result and/or outcome. However, setting goals and then not making a concrete plan on how you want to get there, what you want to change, implement or leave behind, is setting you up for failing your goals. Therefore we want to explore the topics of goal-setting and motivation over the next few posts with you.

The reason why goal setting is so popular is because they are highly connected to motivation. How we formulate our goals has a big impact on how or whether we pursue them (or not). But that's exactly where many people alreaedy make mistakes.

Let’s take the following example: “I want to improve my finger strength, therefore I will be doing some hangboarding.”

We can use his example and the following technique to improve something about Leo’s goal formulation: the SMART concept. SMART is an acronym that stands for: Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely. In fact, we extended the SMART concept to SMARTIE (like the little chocolate candy... do you know them?). I stands for Individual (it should be YOUR goal and not anyone else's) and E like Emotive, emotionally moving. (© Climbing Psycholgy)

Just like in the given example, many of us tend to set rather unspecific goals or goals that aren’t measurable; they do not make any plans on how to achieve their goals etc. If you ever lack motivation after a certain amount of time or when you start feeling frustrated because you don't reach your goals, it might be worth checking your goals with the SMARTIE model. With this model, you can (regularly) check if your goals are SMARTIE and eventually adjust them. 😉

Instead of just setting yourself the goal “I want to improve my finger strength, therefore I will be doing some hangboarding.” , try to be more specific! Add some measurability and also time limit – this, in turn, will most likely increase your motivation!

"I want to maintain some of my finger strength while my climbing gym is closed. Therefore I will do this exact fingerboard exercises on Monday, Wednesdays and Saturdays at 6pm before watching TV that night."

How to set Goals

A good place to start your goal-setting is with these questions:

💫 What exactly do you want to achieve?
💫 What do you need to do, know or change in order to achieve your goal?
💫 How will you know that you achieved your goal/ how can you measure your improvements?
💫 Is your goal attainable/achievable for you in that specific time limit?
💫 Do you have the resources and capabilities to reach your goal?
💫 Is your goal within your reach and relevant to you?

Different types of Goals

When talking about goal setting, we have to make an important distinction based on the objective of the goal. In sport psychology, we differentiate between three different types of goals, each with a different purpose:

Outcome Goals

“I want to win a European Youth Cup” or “I want to climb my 7b project this summer.”

These types of goals are so-called outcome goals. They focus on the result, the outcome of a competition or specific situation. Outcome goals are important because they increase our motivation. They give us a vision and target a certain direction. If we have a reason to give 100% in training because we want to pursue our goal and get better in the long term, we might be more likely to do so if we have a specific, measurable goal.

If we just go climbing with no real reason, we might still enjoy it but might be less effective.

On this note, we should say that there is nothing wrong about just “having fun” – but you always have to ask yourself: Is that what you want? What is it that you want to pursue?

Performance Goals

“I want to improve my flash attempt send rate during competitions.” or “I want to on-sight an 8a which I have so far only red-pointed.”

Performance goals focus – as the name says – on our own performance compared to a previous performance. We can improve ourselves in many different ways. Regardless of whether our improvements are big or small, there‘s an art to recognising them. Asking your coach or your climbing partner can give you valuable insight into, where they see your improvement. This can help you to orientate your training and similar to outcome goals, performance goals can be really motivating and give us a drive to try hard.

Process Goals

“In my next competition, I want to be focused.” or “The next time I am climbing outdoors I want to focus on having fun and not stress out on grades.”

These types of goals are called process goals. They focus on our actions and on the process which for the most part is largely under our own control. While we can't control certain outcome goals, we can control our own actions. Let's take competitions as an example: if we want to win a particular competition, focusing on our results will probably make us feel really stressed.

So instead, we can set ourselves process goals, such as "Today I want to give my best", "I try everything I can", "I follow my routines". The purpose of process goals is to stay calm and focused in moments we need it.

If you have troubles with your motivation or experience a lack of motivation after some time and feel like you can never "finish pursuing your goals" because you get bored, frustrated, distracted before, please don’t hesitate to reach out for help! You’re not alone out there and don’t have to go through this all by yourself!

Talking with a sport psychologist about this exact mental hurdle can make a huge difference and can help you find solutions how to keep going (or find out why it is that you lack motivation after some time and find it hard to keep going).

Remember: If you ever have been thinking about getting mental support, you can schedule your first appointment here. It takes 30 minutes, it’s free – and hence also risk-free.