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Latif Thomas

I think concrete goal setting is as important as showing up every day for practice. My sophomore year was really my first year of track and for the most part I didn't have any real goals. I just wanted to run fast and try to get faster. Back then Mike Ballard was a senior and Hector Negron was there too so I felt like I was nowhere near either one of them. Then in a dual meet I gave Hector a race, losing 22.9-23.1. I had a big PR and then people started giving me times that they thought I should run. It was that day that I set a goal of breaking the school record in the 200. After I decided on that goal, I felt like my season had purpose. When I went out to the track, I felt like I had something to work for. It is a lot more fun when there is a tangible end result to shoot for. Then I ran 51.3 at State Coaches and I thought maybe I had a future in track. My new goal was to beat Ethan in a 400 because he was the stud on the team. After that, every day of practice became so much more exciting. My junior year I set goals of 21.8 and 48.5. I knew that they would be very difficult to reach, but if I didn't set them high I wouldn't feel fulfilled at the end of the season. There were a lot of people who said I couldn't run that fast, especially in the 400, but that only motivated me more. Even when I got stuck hovering around the 50 second barrier, I never lost focus of my goal. Plus, hanging around with PJ and Ethan, track was my life and I knew that I had to have a big junior year to get noticed by college coaches. Before the class meet I started telling people I was going to win. People said I was crazy and that I couldn't beat Joe Ciollo, the indoor 600 yard State champ. He had run 49.2 and I was seeded at 50.0. I didn't care. I went there to win. In the end I ran 49.3 to his 49.8, broke the Class Record and went on to run 48.8 at all-states. I never quite got to 48.5, but I went home that summer truly satisfied that I worked as hard as I could. If I hadn't set lofty but realistic goals, I might not have run that fast. I guess my point is that the goals you set for yourself are only as realistic as you truly believe them to be. I believed I could run 48. and I did.

Janet Pailes
Goals? I've set goals¦ and I've reached them. To me, that is the only way to succeed in something. You have to set a goal and you have to believe in it and in yourself. Goal setting... I remember, my junior year in spring track, 60 seconds, I’ve got to break 60, get past that point... move on to the next step, 60 seconds... in my head... all the time. I will do it. And I did do it, and I did it again and again that season. I thought of a goal and set it in my mind... "That is my goal and I am going to reach it." So I did, and I did it more than once. I was able to then set higher goals, strive for more. And even if I didn’t reach all of those higher goals, I truly wanted them. They were real. They were in my heart, backed with pain, sweat, and determination through every step. They were mine.

But sometimes a goal is maintained, and the mind is not there with it. You set a "goal", and you might at first think it is real, but is it? It’s there, in the back of your mind, just lingering and collecting dust. It is hardly thought of and simply remains dormant for long periods of time. Is that really a goal? Or is it just a thought... just something you wish for, but really don't believe in, something you claim to set in your mind as a goal, but it just rests back there.

Once in awhile you think of it. During that grueling workout, or when you cross that line after a race... "Did I get it this time??" No, of course not. It is not a goal of yours, just a nice thought. How can you attain something that you do not believe in? How could you reach it? You don't actually want it enough. You have this thought, not a goal, but merely a thought in your head, that once in awhile pops up, and you think to yourself "this is my goal for this season", but its not actually a goal, because you don't believe in it.

When it is not a goal, it is always followed by question marks, and buts and ifs. Break 1:19?? It does seem kind of fast, you say to yourself, "I want to run a 1:18, but it does seem like a really difficult time to run, so that would be a great accomplishment if I really did. And if I don't, I guess I can deal with that." If I don’t?? There are no ifs with goals. And there is certainly no negativity with a goal. You will do it, and it will happen. And if for some reason it doesn't by the end of the season, you can continue to go after it next season or take it with you elsewhere in life. Use it as fuel toward anything. You may not have physically achieved that goal, but mentally it is yours.

Goals? Yes, I’ve set goals. I’ve strived for them. I’ve achieved them. I believed in them. But a “goal”? I’ve “set” that too. But did I strive for it? And did I believe in it? No. It was not truly a goal; simply a thought with not enough meaning to become a goal. No heart and soul. So there are goals, and then there are “goals”. It all depends how much you want them.

Linzi Calderone

A goal is a promise. A promise to yourself to work as hard as you possibly can. Sometimes when I set goals they can be unrealistic, but having that goal to work toward is what keeps me going. Both long term and short-term goals are equally important. For instance, one of my long term goals in my senior year was to place in the top 10 in the 2mile at Class B. The only way I could have ever achieved that goal was by setting smaller goals for every meet and even every practice. In high school, my goal every day was to complete my workout to the very best of my ability. Walking away from practice, knowing that I tried my hardest and got the most I could get out of my work out is what made me able to reach my long-term goal at the end of the season. Sometimes goals can be disappointing if they are not reached. For instance, having the goal of beating an opponent or winning a race can often be hard to accomplish. After setting similar goals to those and sometimes being disappointed, I realized it was not worth the disappointment. As long as I tried my hardest, I was happy with myself.
If you accomplish a long-term goal, you should immediately set a new one or you may get off track. After high school I had pretty much accomplished all of my goals and failed to set new ones. As a result of this, I stopped running and exercising for close to a year. After a lot of thinking I finally decided to set some new goals for myself. I now find myself running and working out almost every day, with the goal of running cross country and track next year in college. I am already realizing how hard this goal is going to be for me to accomplish, but I made a promise to myself to work as hard as I can and that is what I am going to do.