This document discusses motivation and goal setting for athletes. It explains that athletes are driven to improve and succeed through both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Effective goal setting involves understanding one's commitment level and desired performance, setting specific and measurable goals at an appropriate level of difficulty, and providing feedback when goals are achieved or failed. Goals should be written down, prioritized, and adjusted based on feedback to continually challenge and motivate the athlete.

1. The Psychology of the Sport of
Speaking – Motivation.
Whinks

2. Introduction.
• What makes an athlete train
day in, day out, in all weathers,
all year round?
• Why do they want to improve?
• What is driving them to strive
for success?
• Success itself?
• To be the best that you can be
in your chosen sport or activity.

3. What Motivates Us?
• We may be fortunate enough to
be able to lead and guide
ourselves.
• Many of us will rely on a primary
coach.
• We may call on a group of
trusted older graduates.
• Intrinsic & Extrinsic

4. Goal Setting
• Before you start to set goals,
you should try to consider the
background to goal setting
itself:
• Understanding your commitment to
the sport (of speaking).
• Understanding the level you want to
reach within the sport (of speaking)
• Knowing the skills that will have to
be acquired and the levels of
performance that will be needed.

5. General Guidelines.
• Positive Statement: Express
your goals positively.
• Be Precise.
• Set Priorities.
• Record Goals.
• Keep immediate Goals
Small.

6. Set Specific Goals.
• Set specific measurable goals.
• If you achieve all aspects of a
measurable goal, then you can be
confident in your achievement or that of
your graduate.
• If you consistently fail to meet a
measurable goal, then you can adjust it
or analyse why you have not succeeded.
• After analysis, you can take appropriate
action and approach it from a different
angle.
• Or set smaller targets to build up to the
larger goal.

7. Set Realistic Goals .
• Goals may be set unrealistically
high for the following reasons:
– Other people’s influence.
– Insufficient information on the
situation.
– Always expecting your best
performance.
– Lack of self-respect and
knowledge of your own limits.

8. Setting Goals Too Low
• Alternatively goals can be set
too low because of:
– Fear of failure (Where have we
heard that before?)
– Not willing to put in the effort
required:
• Time
• Complacency

9. Setting Goals at the Right Level.
• Skill that is which can only be
gained through practice.
• Set goals so that they are
slightly out of your immediate
grasp.
• No-one will put serious effort
into achieving a goal that they
believe is unrealistic.
• Remember that the belief that
a goal is unrealistic may be
counter productive.

10. Where Goal Setting Can Go Wrong.
• Goal setting can go wrong for
a number of reasons:
• Goals can be set unrealistically
high.
• Goals can be set too low.
• Goals can be so vague that they
are useless.
• Too many goals may be set and
then worked towards at the same
time.

11. Achieving Goals and Feedback.
• When you have achieved a
goal, take the time to enjoy it
and what achieving it has
meant.
• Take the opportunity to reward
yourself appropriately if you
have been working towards it
for a long time.

12. Feedback: Failure.
• Where you have failed to reach a goal,
ensure that you learn the lessons of the
failure.
• These may be:
• That you didn't try hard enough
• That your technique was faulty and needs to be
adjusted
• That the goal you set was unrealistic

13. Feedback: Failure Cont.
• Use this information to adjust the goal.
• Feeding back turns everything into a positive
learning experience.
• Even failing to achieve a goal can be a step
forward towards better technique.
• Remember that the fact of trying something,
even if it does not work, often opens doors
that would otherwise have remained closed.

14. Feedback: Success.
• Where you have achieved a goal always try
and feedback into your next goals:
• If the goal was easily achieved, make your next goals
harder
• If the goal took too long to achieve, make the next goals
a little easier
• If you learned something that would lead you to change
goals still outstanding, do so
• If while achieving the goal you noticed some turbulence
in your recovery, take appropriate action to fix this.

15. Feedback: Success Cont.
• Goals change as you mature and travel along
Freedom’s Road.
• Adjust them regularly to reflect this growth.
• If goals do not hold any attraction any longer,
have a break and try other things.
• To reach your target should bring you real
pleasure, satisfaction and achievement.

16. Summary of Goal Setting.
• Goal setting is an
important method of:
– Deciding how committed
you are to the sport of
speaking.
– Deciding what is
important for you to
achieve.
– Motivating yourself to
achieve.
– Building your self-
confidence.
• You can set goals
effectively by:
– Phrasing them positively
– Defining them precisely
– Prioritising multiple goals
– Writing them down
– Keeping them
manageable: Not too
hard, but not too easy.

17. The SMARTER Principle.
• You may now be thinking, “Whinks, I’ve
reached information overload!”
• Set your goals based on the S.M.A.R.T.E.R
principle.
• Goals should be:
• Specific
• Measurable
• Affirmative
• Realistic
• Time based
• Evaluated
• Recorded