Goal Setting

What are goals?

Goals are designed to help you get where you want to go.

They are the road map to your dreams, helping you achieve feats that otherwise might feel impossible.

Goals are:

• Designed to help you get where you want to go.
• An aim or desired result; the object of a person’s ambition or efforts; the destination of a journey.
• The road map to your dreams, helping you achieve feats that otherwise might feel impossible or overwhelming.
• Can be focused on academics, athletics, health, personal development, careers, or anything else that is important to you.

Research shows that when you achieve goals that are important to you, your feelings of well-being increase.

Watch this Ambassador Story with Trevon ‘Trey’ Jenifer or read the lesson aloud.

Trevon ‘Trey’ Jenifer, Team USA Wheelchair Basketball Player and multi-time Paralympian, started his Paralympic journey in humble conditions just outside of Washington, D.C. Urged initially by his stepfather to be courageous and to try new sports, Trey’s experience eventually landed him at Edinboro University playing wheelchair basketball. Here he learned about the importance and power of goal-setting, writing down his goals, making them challenging, and assessing them over time. That knowledge led Trey to begin the task of organizing exactly what he hoped to achieve in his athletic career.

As a freshman at Edinboro, Trey was a part of a team that made the National Championship. At the time, he recognized he was the “low man on the totem pole”, but in his heart he knew that his dreams were so much bigger than winning a National Championship. Trey wanted to make Team USA.

He knew achieving his lofty goal was not going to be easy and that he would need to work for it every day, so as a reminder, he created a pyramid of goals that he kept right above his bed. This pyramid reminded him of the accomplishments he was working towards, and visually represented his need to create a solid foundation underneath him before he could reach the top.

In the bottom row of Trey’s pyramid of goals, he listed becoming a Scholar Athlete Award recipient (overall GPA of 3.0), an All American, and obtaining his bachelor’s degree. The middle row listed winning a national title and playing for a professional team, and the top row, the most challenging row of them all, listed becoming a gold medalist for Team USA.

By understanding that there were smaller steppingstones to achieving his ultimate goal of being on Team USA, he was better able to stay motivated and to focus on completing each stepping stone fully before moving on to the next. Trey will be the first to admit that not every goal he listed on his pyramid was accomplished, but by seeing his goals every day when he went to bed, he was able to push through the days he felt like doing nothing in hopes of achieving the bigger picture.

Trey went on to win a gold medal as a part of Team USA Men’s Wheelchair Basketball team during the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympics.

1. What was the main point you took away from the lesson?

2. How have you used the goal-setting process, like Jimmy does, in your own life?

3. How can you set some goals this week that will enhance your sport experience or help you plan for the future?