Goal setting can be incredibly powerful for athletes. Outcome goals and future goals can give you motivation, help you work harder, and give you a clear idea of where you want to go.
The problem is not setting those goals. The problem is when they become your only focus. When all of your attention is placed on outcomes, things outside your control, or where you want to be in the future, it becomes easy to feel discouraged and begin doubting yourself.
In this article, I’m going to go over five goal-setting mistakes athletes make that hurt their confidence, along with what you can do instead.
Mistake #1: Only Setting Outcome Goals
Outcome goals in sports involve what you want to achieve by the end of a game or by the end of a season. Typically, these come in the form of statistics or wins and losses.
The reason this can hurt an athlete’s confidence is that when so much attention is placed on the outcome, a couple of things can happen. First, if we do not feel like we are going to achieve that outcome, we can feel discouraged.
I’m working with a track athlete right now who recently had a big race. It was a Nike-sponsored event, so it was a really important race for her.
She had been doing incredibly well all season, which is why she was able to go to the event. However, because her time was so good, she was placed with girls who were a couple of years older than her.
That immediately messed with her confidence. She also had the natural goal of wanting to finish in the top three.
As the race started, the other girls went out at a really hard pace, so she stuck with them. After the second lap of the mile, though, the other girls started to lengthen the gap and pull ahead.
Because she was so caught up in where she wanted to finish, this naturally affected her confidence. She began to feel like there was no point, became discouraged, and slowed down.
The time she finished with was not as good as it could have been, even if she still would not have finished first, second, or third.
If she had continued to push, she could have run a better time. However, because her attention was so focused on the outcome, seeing that outcome become less likely caused her confidence and effort to drop.
When our focus is so much on the outcome, it is natural to feel discouraged or frustrated when it does not look like we are going to achieve that result.
Another reason this hurts confidence is that over the course of a season, drops in performance can also lead to drops in confidence if all of our goals are focused on results.
An example of this would be a baseball hitter who experiences a slump during the season. His entire focus going into each game is on the outcome: How many hits am I going to get?
When he starts to struggle, his confidence going into the next game takes a hit. His entire definition of success for the previous game was based on the result and how many hits he got.
Outcome goals are powerful. They give us motivation, help us work harder, and can even help us focus more.
But when we only focus and fixate on outcome goals, and they consume all of our attention, it is natural for our confidence to drop. This happens when it does not look like we are going to get the outcome we want or when we are coming off a bad game.
Shift Your Focus Onto the Process
You want to keep the outcome goal because you still want to push yourself, but you also want to pair it with more process goals.
With the track athlete, one of the things we talked about in our next session was what she could focus on if she found herself in that situation again.
She would want to continue repeating the mantra we had put in place earlier in the season, which had been helping her up to that point. She would also want to focus on running her race, finishing her race strong, and giving full effort.
Her outcome goal is still there, and it is still motivating her. But during the actual race, she is focusing instead on the process goals she knows will help her run a good race.
With the baseball player, instead of his only goal being to get a hit, he can accompany that goal with being prepared for the at-bat.
When he is on deck, he can focus on timing up the pitcher and doing everything he can to prepare for each pitch.
For him, that is going to lead to more confidence and, most importantly, more consistency.
You can absolutely set outcome goals, but outcome goals should not be the only type of goal you set. You do not want them to be your only focus.
You want outcome goals to motivate you, push you, and force you to focus more. But you also want to accompany those outcome goals with good process goals.
Mistake #2: Only Setting Goals That Are Not 100% Within Your Control
The second goal-setting mistake that lowers your confidence is only setting goals that are not 100% within your control.
This goes along the same lines as only setting outcome goals. When our goals are not fully within our control, it is difficult to go into a game and feel like we can make sure those goals happen.
No matter how well you have played in practice or how well you have played recently, you cannot guarantee how you are going to play in the upcoming game.
When your goals are focused only on things outside your control, and you already have a tendency to doubt yourself, you are opening the door to more doubt.
Learn to Set Controllable Goals
I love controllable goals because I think they leverage this idea of confidence.
Confidence is so important for athletes because of what it allows us to do.
When I am confident in myself, I do not have to overthink. I do not fear what is going to happen, and I am not stressed about what the result will be.
Because I trust myself, I am free to be in the moment.
As an athlete, you are going to play your best when you are fully in the present moment and focused on what is happening right now. Confidence allows you to do that.
Now, pair that with the idea of setting controllable goals.
If I set a controllable goal for myself, such as giving full effort, that feels manageable. As simple as that goal is, I can go into a game and say, “I might not have been playing well recently, but I feel like I can give full effort today.”
A hitter might say, “I want to time up the pitcher while I’m on deck.” That feels manageable.
A soccer player might say, “I want to get into a good position on the field.” That also feels manageable.
When we set more controllable goals, we naturally give ourselves more confidence. We are giving ourselves a target that is within our control and that we feel like we can achieve.
You might be thinking, does that mean I am lowering my expectations or not believing I can play well?
Absolutely not.
When we focus only on outcome goals, which are also not fully within our control, what we often end up doing is hoping that we play well.
When we set controllable goals, we put our focus on what is actually going to move the needle. We are asking, what is going to help me play well today?
If I am getting into a good position as a soccer player, that puts me in a position to score a goal or make a good pass.
If I am timing up the pitcher well and then focusing on the ball while I am at the plate, that may seem simple, but it is also a great recipe for success.
I love controllable goals because they give you more confidence, but they also make sure you are doing everything you can to be successful.
Mistake #3: Focusing Too Much on the Future
The third mistake is focusing too much on the future.
Outcome goals, future goals, and knowing where you want to get to as an athlete are wonderful. They are needed because they give you the motivation and discipline to wake up at 5:00 in the morning to work out or get extra reps after practice or a game.
But when we focus too much on future goals, we can be left with the feeling of “I’m not there yet.”
In order to reach your outcome goals and long-term goals, you have to have confidence right now that you can play well.
It is playing well today, tomorrow, the next day, and the day after that, which will eventually lead to the future outcome you want. We have to make sure you have confidence right now.
What can happen, though, is that we are always thinking about where we want to be and comparing that to where we are right now.
When we do that, we always feel like we are less than. We feel like we are not quite where we want to be yet.
But the truth is, you are probably better than you were before.
The problem is that we keep pushing the goalpost farther and farther back. Each time we improve, we set another future target and continue focusing on what we have not done yet.
What we want to do instead is keep those long-term goals but also set smaller targets for ourselves.
Setting Smaller Targets
Another key part of developing confidence as an athlete is feeling like you are successful.
That does not mean taking a fake approach or lying to yourself. It means that instead of only fixating on an end result, such as making varsity in a few years, getting signed to a college team, or going pro, you also set smaller targets for yourself.
What are some targets you want to achieve this offseason? What are some targets you want to achieve this season?
What can be even more valuable is setting those targets around things that are within your control.
This allows for a natural progression of confidence.
There’s an athlete I’m working with right now who has very high expectations for herself. As a result, she does not feel like she is good enough right now.
She wonders, “How am I supposed to feel confident if I haven’t seen myself do the things I want to do in order to feel confident?”
What we have done is chunked the goal down.
She now has targets every single week that she is working toward. We are seeing her confidence grow on a week-by-week basis because she is achieving those targets.
That is also going to position her to reach her long-term goal without having to constantly fixate on it and feel like she is not quite there yet.
Mistake #4: Using Goals as a Way to Judge Your Worth
The fourth mistake is using goals as a way to judge your worth.
I work with a lot of athletes in one-on-one coaching to help them separate their self-worth from how they play.
When our self-worth is too tied to the results of our performance, we can end up playing with fear.
If I am only going to feel good about myself when I play well, or I assume other people are only going to feel good about me if I play well, how am I supposed to play freely?
How am I supposed to feel like it is okay to make a mistake?
I am going to play tense, tight, and scared because I don’t want people to think badly about me. I also don’t want my self-worth to drop.
The same thing is true when we attach our self-worth to our goals.
Again, it is great to set goals for yourself. But as an athlete, I think it is healthier, and even more competitive, to feel good about working toward a goal rather than only feeling good about the achievement of the goal.
This is why I ground so much of my work in the idea of what is within your control.
Focus on What is Within Your Control
When we talked about setting goals too far in the future, I said to chunk the goal down and give yourself targets week by week.
Those targets need to be within your control.
When those targets are in your control, you can feel good about the work you are putting in and the effort you are giving. These are things you know you can do in order to improve.
If you base your worth on that, you are basing your self-worth on your character, work ethic, attitude, and mindset rather than simply the achievement of an outcome goal.
Instead of saying the only way you can judge yourself positively is if you get a few hits today, score a certain number of points, or reach a long-term goal a year from now, feel good about yourself for the process work you are doing.
Focus on the work you are putting in on a day-by-day and week-by-week basis.
Mistake #5: Giving Up on Your Plan After a Bad Performance
The fifth mistake is giving up on your plan after a bad practice, bad game, or even a bad season.
Of course, we need to modify plans when they aren’t working.
However, what can have an even more negative impact on your potential as an athlete is constantly second-guessing your plan, your mechanics, and yourself.
That can hurt you more than having an imperfect plan.
If a plan is not perfect, if it is applied consistently and diligently, it has a better chance of helping us reach our goals than constantly changing plans while trying to find the perfect one.
Just because you had a bad game does not mean you need to go back to the drawing board and change your plan, process, or mechanics.
That is where athletes can get into trouble.
Work to Be Consistent
What you want to do instead is have a clear idea of what it takes to be successful within your sport.
These are the controllable actions you need to take and the controllable process parts of performing.
You want to aim to be consistent with those.
When you aim to be consistent with the controllables, it’s easier to accept natural variances in performance. Some days are going to be good, and some days are going to be bad.
Consistency will come from doing those controllable things every single day, every single week, and every single game.
A great example of this is a mental preparation routine you use before a game.
Suppose you go through your mental preparation routine and do not play well that day. If that routine has been helpful in the past, you do not want to change everything and think, “That routine doesn’t work anymore.”
You want to stick to your routine and understand that there are going to be good days and bad days.
As an athlete, you want to be consistent.
The first place we want to look when it comes to consistency is the actions we take. This includes the way we approach the game, our mindset, and our effort.
In other words, we want to look at the controllables.
Final Thoughts
Goals should help give you direction, motivation, and something to work toward. But when you become too focused on outcomes, goals outside your control, or where you think you should be in the future, goal setting can start to hurt your confidence instead of helping it.
The difficult part is that these patterns don’t always look the same from one athlete to the next. One athlete might lose confidence after a bad game, another might constantly feel behind because they’re comparing themselves to a future goal, and another might tie their entire sense of success to whether or not they reach a certain result.
That’s where having a more personalized approach can help.
In 1-on-1 coaching, we can look at how you’re currently setting goals, where your confidence tends to drop, and what you’re focusing on before and during competition.
From there, we can build a goal-setting process that still pushes you to improve while helping you stay focused on the controllables, trust your plan, and feel more confident in the work you’re doing.
You can learn more here about my one-on-one mental performance coaching program.
Thank you for reading, and I wish you the best of success in all that you do.
