It’s easy to look at the big accomplishments of the climbing elite and think that these sends just happened because of how strong and talented these athletes are. However, this view not only glosses over all the hard work these climbers put in, but it also completely skips the first and most important step: setting goals.

Whether your an elite climber or not, climbing something hard for you personally doesn’t just happen. Yes, you have to train and you have to put in the work on your project. However, having a goal is the first step. Your goal should inform your training decisions, give you the motivation to keep putting in the hard work, and drive you to be better.

To highlight the importance of setting goals, here’s an article from Rock and Ice Magazine by Michaela Kiersch about the how she sets goals and the importance it played in her ascent of Necessary Evil 5.14c.

“Goal setting can sometimes seem daunting because you need to be vulnerable enough to honestly assess what you are capable of now and what you truly think you are capable of in the future. It is not easy to subject yourself to a high likelihood of failure but it is necessary to achieve personal success.” – Michaela Kiersch

Michaela Kiersch on Setting Goals

The benefit of having big goals that push you to improve should be obvious. However, the main reason we are sharing this article is that Michaela does a great job of breaking down the goal setting process. Setting big goals is great, but not every goal can be a huge one that may or may not be possible. We need intermediary goals to help us stay on track and to keep us motivated.

To help ensure she has intermediary goals, Michaela breaks goals into three categories:

• Self-Confidence Goals
• Realistic Goals
• Stretch Goals

Click through below to read more about these categories and Michaela’s goal setting process. Michaela even includes examples of some of her goals from all three of these categories to really give you a concrete sense of what they should look like.

Afterward, we highly recommend you sit down, follow Michaela’s example, and write your goals down. You’ll be amazed and how motivating taking this simple step can be!

Full Article: Rock and Ice – Michaela Kiersch on Setting Goals

(photo courtesy of rockandice.com)

Other Articles You Might Like:

• Matt Pincus: Fitting Everything In
• TBP 096 :: Sports Psychologist Chris Heilman on Imagery and Setting Realistic Goals
• Emily Harrington- Training For Your Goals
• Evening Sends – Becoming a Better Climber in 2018