Motivation and Goal setting

Second blog post!  I can't believe I've come so far (lol).  Before I get started, I'd just like to say that I'm gonna try to post something every week from now on.  Thanks (in advance) for reading!

There are a lot of things that I love about my (and hopefully your) sport.  I love the places skiing takes me, all of my great ski friends, the tough training it takes to be competitive, and of course, skiing my ass off on the race course.

Unfortunately though, there are a couple things that I am not too fond of, and, ranking right up at the top of this is... (imaginary drum roll)... GETTING UP EARLY IN THE MORNING!!  Almost every morning when I get up there is only one place I want to be-- still in bed.  Heh, what a fool this guy Zeke is, you think.  Of all the things to complain about, why would he pick something so childish?!?  But seriously, as stupid as this sounds, I find it really hard to motivate myself to climb out of bed in the morning.  

In getting up in the morning, and in xc skiing in general, motivation is, obviously, key.  And, at this point in the year, motivation is a commodity that many skiers (myself included) can be lacking.  

Going to another level completely, I would make a blatant generalization and say that North Americans tend to be unmotivated as a society.

To combat this lack of motivation, in the spring months of skiing when the Winter seems so...far...away..., or, in any other aspect of life, one can use a very simple tool: goal setting!  Before all you other athletes out there disregard this blog on the count that every coach/parent/mentor has bugged you in the past about goals and you feel like you would rather curl up and die than be patronized about how important of a mental training tool they are, ask yourself this question:  are you, at this point in time, setting goals effectively??  If you are, then go ahead and disregard the rest of this blog (but know that I will be sad if you do).

If you answered No! to all the above, then, unless you are being facetious, you are not setting goals in an effective manner and on a regular bases.  I highly recommend that you change this truth right now.  The setting of goals can turn a mediocre athlete into a high level one, a directionless lost-soul into somebody like Tony Stark (IRONMAN!!!!), and a “lame” person into less of a “lame” person.

For those of you who want to be awesome like Ironman, here are FIVE tips and tricks (Trix are for kids, okay!?!?  ...silly rabbit...) that will help you, and have helped me, with goal setting.

Goal: walk all the way across slackline

1) Goal setting is a tier system (in my opinion) and is organized based on the time frame it takes to achieve the specific goal.  Thus, you should set multi-year goals (i.e., Get a doctorate in something; Qualify for the space Olympics), yearly and monthly goals (win World Juniors; get an A+ in the study of Awesomenessity this semester), and finally, tiny, weekly or daily goals (focus on technique instead of speed; finish studying without jumping around like Br’er Rabbit).

2) When you set goals, you should come up with things that are not completely unreasonable and impossible to achieve (impossible is nothing--but you got to take baby steps to get there) but, at the same time, are not so easy that there is no challenge in completing them.  This is kind’a tricky; there is really no magic pill to find balance in goal setting--you’ll have to figure it out yourself.

3) WRITE THEM DOWN!!  What I’ve done is hang a big piece of paper on my wall, and write my monthly goals in chronological order, as I get to them, starting from the top, and working my way down to my goals for the year, which I have written at the bottom.  (It seems I am too unmotivated to write down my daily training goals).  I find that putting up my goals on my wall is important, because then I get to see them frequently, and they seem more physical and immediate--if that makes any sense.  Not only that, but when you achieve them, you get to light ‘em up with big happy check marks :)  ...I highly recommend writing down goals.

4) DREAM BIG!!  Dreams give birth to goals and smart people turn their dreams into their multi-year goals.  Ultimately, the line between dreams and goals should be blurry, because you dream about what you are passionate about and, if you are not passionate about your goals, you might as well stop right now.

5) Give yourself a reward, like, a cookie, when you complete a goal.  I like cookies :)

You will find that if you have “tiered” goals that are challenging, yet achievable, they will act like rungs in a metaphorical ladder that you can climb to achieve greatness in whatever it is you are passionate about.

Hope that my post about goals and motivation has helped you out!  If you yourself have any goal setting advice, I’d be stoked if you took them time to type it up in the comments.

Dream big, people

A new start

A Cat

So it seems that, nowadays, everybody and their cat has a blog.  Until recently, I would not label myself as an “everybody”, but now, a shocking development is about to change it all (and no, sadly, I have not turned into a cat)--I am starting a blog!!

As mentioned in my “A Legend” box, over there on the left-hand side of your screen, my blog will be mostly about skiing, and the road (or ski trail?) that I am following to achieve my goals in said sport.  The pursuit of competitive skiing is a path that I have been traveling for the last 7 years, and, a path that I intend to continue following for years to come.  I hope that you will join me in my journey in the form of a Follower (another left-hand-side-of-your-screen-box), and that you will be able to derive some entertainment from my blog posts along the way.  

Once you have read a few of my posts, I am sure that you will find that even though I am now blogging, I am still not an “everybody”!

Now where to begin. . .

Racing to 3rd place (skate sprint), at the Whistler Olympic Park, before the incident

This past Winter has been a pretty lousy one for me, with respect to my sport.  I had pretty high expectations going into the 2011-12 ski season, but about a month in, I somehow got it into my head that I had to try a new sport--snowboarding no less.  Unfortunately the experience put something else into my head: a headache that lasted a month.  At the end of the ordeal, I had missed most of my on-snow season, but was able to make it back on skis in time to show up at Nationals with a pretty much non-existent base of training.  No miracles occurred, and so, I didn’t throw down any crazy results at Mont Saint Anne Nationals--but I did co-produce a legit new music video with my teammate Steffan Lloyd!

Yours truly, given'r at MSA Nationals 2012

With all the above in mind, I am going into this new year (for skiers the new year is May 1st) with an INSATIABLE HUNGER FOR SUCCESS (heh, lol).  But seriously, I can see so many aspects of my training that I can, and will, improve this year; a fairly empowering awareness, and one that I’m sure you other competitive athletes out there can appreciate.  After all, no matter what sport you are in, if you live to compete, then you Live to Rise above all other personal best performances.

Feelin' stoked about the upcoming season. . .

. . .after 4X6min intervals on the bike

Looks like you’re at the end of my first blog!  Thanks a bunch for reading it.  In passing I would like to express my intentions of posting up here regularly.  And by regularly, I mean at least two times a month (it’s all relative, okay?).

Dream big people (and enjoy me and Steffan’s badass vid)!