Setting Goals to Stay Motivated

Setting goals is an age old motivational tool. In fact Aristotle advised, "First, have a definite, clear, practical ideal - a goal, an objective."
The most prominent research done in the area of goal setting was done by Dr Edwin Locke in the late 1960s. In his 1968 article "Toward a Theory of Task Motivation and Incentives," he stated that employees were motivated by clear goals and appropriate feedback. Locke went on to say that working toward a goal provided a major source of motivation to actually reach the goal - which, in turn, improved performance.

Locke's research showed that there was a relationship between how difficult and specific a goal was and people's performance of a task. He found that specific and difficult goals led to better task performance than vague or easy goals.

Telling someone to "Try hard" or "Do your best" is less effective than "Concentrate on beating your best time." Having a goal that is too easy is not a motivating force. Hard goals are more motivating than easy goals, because it's much more of an accomplishment to achieve something that you have to work for.

After completing my 1st 1/2 marathon I wanted to stay motivated. Following what the research suggests and what I've found worked to keep me motivated for my 1st race I set new goals. First, I signed up for another 1/2 marathon and put on my calender my new training schedule. I follow Jeff Galloway's 1/2 marathon training guide and have found that this is doable, yet challenging at the same time. For my first 1/2 I did not set a time goal, but for my second I have. I also scheduled several shorter races as I have found completing these events keeps me motivated to improve my times.

Setting goals when running will keep you motivated, improve your performance, and more than likely keep it fun.