Ten Ways To Set And Achieve Goals

If you’re willing to get behind your kids to help them achieve their goals, Toyota is too.

Toyota loves a tryer. We’ve long been a sponsor of the Sanitarium Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon, which gets kids of all ages and abilities moving and achieving. Toyota’s got some impressive sporting icons alongside to inspire the kids, including a Commonwealth Games athlete, Emirates Team New Zealand yachtsmen and a double Olympic champion. One thing all these high-achieving athletes have in common is their goal-setting. Here are ten ways to help your kids reach the target they’re aiming for.

1. Make goals specific and hard

It turns out people like a challenge. We’re wired for it. Hard goals push us to a greater level of effort, and specific goals eg: beat the school record at the TRYathlon are more effective than vague ones eg: do my best. Olivia McTaggart who competed in pole vault at the 2018 Commonwealth Games says, “I was only five years old when I knew I wanted to go to the Olympics. I’m still going for that goal. Don’t be afraid to be ambitious, enjoy it and just work really hard.”

2. Your goal has to be your own

When goals are imposed on us, it’s hard to be motivated. Agreeing to a goal is known as “goal acceptance". And it’s vital. So even if a goal is impossible, if you accept it in your head, you’re far more likely to achieve high performance. So make sure you get involved in the goal-setting process and choose your own objective.

3. You have to believe you can do it

People with high self-belief set higher goals than people with lower self-belief. They are committed to achieving their goals and can accept negative feedback. They can then learn what their weaknesses are and work to overcome them.

4. Equip yourself to achieve

To set yourself up to succeed, you need the necessary skills and access to resources to reach your goal. Josh Junior from Emirates Team New Zealand grew up around a yacht club. He enjoyed being part of the club and it helped provide him with equipment, advice and support. Josh says, “even at the young age of 7 or 8 I really wanted to become a professional sailor.”

5. Walk before you run

Sometimes reaching a performance goal requires you to set a learning goal first. A performance goal focuses on an outcome, like winning an Olympic gold medal for triple jump. A learning goal focuses on the skills or knowledge you need to get there, like researching and mastering the correct technique.

6. Check your motivation

Are you enjoying the process? People who put in a lot of effort because they enjoy a sport tend to improve faster than people who put in the effort just because they want to win or gain approval. Dame Valerie Adams says, “have fun and be prepared to work for it.” Dame Valerie is a double Olympic Champion. She’s won eight world championship titles and she’s a Toyota Brand Guardian.

7. Frame your goal in a positive way

There’s a big difference between saying, “there’s a 50% chance of success” and “there’s a 50% chance of failure”. People who focus on success tend to outperform those who focus on failure. So think about how you’re seeing your goal. Instead of “don’t settle for silver” make it “go for gold”. Josh Junior from Emirates Team New Zealand says, “I just keep trying to be better than I was yesterday.”

8. Have a plan of action

If you want to reach your goals, you need to develop habits to support them.

• Goal intention: “I want to win gold”.
• How intention: “I will train every day at 6am, before school”.

Having a specific action plan, including the how, when, and where drastically increases the chances that you’ll do what you need to do to reach your goal.

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