Goal setting and your values
Me climbing Better Eat Your Wheaties V8, Hueco USA. Photo by Alex Messenger
Spring has well and truly sprung and the outdoor climbing season has definitely got underway here in the Peak District! Maybe you set your climbing goals at the start of the year or even at the start of the winter training period last autumn? Or perhaps you’re just thinking about it now as you emerge from the climbing wall and make your first steps of the year outside again?
Either way for many people goal setting is not a straight forward process. Of course too, even if you have managed to find a formula for you that works in setting and completing goals, goalposts shift, life does its thing and another approach is required. This is absolutely the case as my climbing as evolved over the years.
One common goal setting tool uses SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound). Yes there are benefits to this way of thinking and there is a lot to unpick here.
However there is a far more fundamental process that many (arguably most) people overlook. This is about setting goals that align with your values.
Values are things like friendship, peace of mind, fun, creativity, independence etc etc. When you set your climbing goals aligned with theses absolute fundamental principles that align with who you are, you’ll have a far greater chance of sticking to and achieving your climbing goals.
Above is World Cup winner and Olympian Shauna Coxsey’s view on happiness and achieving her competition goals. It is this fundamental. Happiness has to be at the core for Shauna or else she can’t achieve the success in climbing - and let’s face it, she’s achieved an awful lot in her climbing.
Here is a short video of me talking about this principle, my values and how I incorporate into my climbing.
As you can see from the video fun and friendship in particular are core values of mine. They are important in my life in general and they are also important in my climbing. What this means is that my climbing goals must include both fun and friendship. In the past I didn’t always pay attention to the detail of these values, meaning I would sometimes climb with people I didn’t know that well and climbing goals at time drifted into the serious (the aside here is when you train really hard for years it’s easy for climbing goals seem quite serious – this was not a good approach for me – which is why we live and learn!!).
Of course there is another angle, which we need to consider and that is when there is a conflict of values. This can really get in the way of achieving goals, which is why we need to be really clear. For me hard work and peace of mind are also values. This provides an interesting conflict in my climbing. Given half a chance hard work and personal challenge take over and peace of mind takes a back seat. This is where I have run into problems in the past. If hard work and personal challenge win then goals can become slightly unrealistic, which logistics and available time not matching up, which in turn causes stress. You can see the problem!
So here are three questions for you:
What are your values?
Which climbing goals best align with these values?
Are there any conflicts in your values, which may get in the way of achieving those goals?