Goal Setting & Concentration: Two Important Pst Skills

Goal Setting & Concentration: Two Important PST Skills

Psychological skills training are an important part of training programs in sports and in other areas of life. Goal setting is one particular area of a psychological skills training that is very important. Another very important area of psychological skills training is concentration. These are the two areas that I have chosen to focus on so that I believe can achieve the optimal level of performance in academics.

Goal Setting and concentration go hand in hand with each other when you are trying to attain a certain goal or achievement. Recently, back on January 31st, I received a grade of 70 percent on my first exam in finance. Although, I scored 10 points higher than the class average, I still believe that I can do better. So I have set a goal for myself to achieve at least an 80 percent or better on the second exam, which is scheduled for February 21st.

According to Casey Spieker and Verlin Hinsz, research shows that challenging and specific goals in conjunction with high self-efficacy lead to higher levels of task performance. The impact of repeated success and failure on personal goals and self-efficacy was examined. Undergraduate students initially participated in two-idea generation tasks in which they generated different uses for common objects, such as a knife, which provided them with opportunities to either succeed or fail in goal attainment. Participants then set personal goals and judged their self-efficacy for a subsequent idea generation trial. Our results show that participants who experienced repealed successes set higher personal goals than did those with only a single success, while self-efficacy was not significantly influenced by repealed success or failure. These findings suggest that situational and personal factors such as reactions to prior successes and failures may influence persona! Goals on future tasks do not seem to have an influence on self-efficacy (Spieker p 191-197).

When I was studying for the first exam, there were a lot of distractions. I coach Junior Varsity boy's basketball, and we have games twice a week and practice the other three nights a week. I am a very social person and love going out with my wife and friends a lot. Lastly, I am taking 21 credit hours this quarter, and I am dividing my time with the other six courses. So, for the week before my second exam, I am going to focus and concentrate more on this exam.

In the first step of goal setting you must set short term goals that you can steadily build upon. When you set short term goals and achieve them, you will be more likely to make your long term goals. By setting goals, you allow yourself to dictate where and how you are going to do in life. When you know exactly what you want to achieve, you can concentrate more effectively when doing it. By setting clearly defined goals, you can evaluate and take pleasure in the achievement of those goals. By setting goals, you will also increase your self-confidence, as you identify your abilities and competence in achieving those goals.

According to Foundations of Sport and Exercise Psychology, goal setting is an extremely powerful technique for enhancing performance, but it must be implemented correctly (Weinberg, 333). Here are a couple of reasons why goal setting works; you pay more attention to the important elements of what you are trying to achieve. You begin to develop new learning strategies, which can help you to achieve your goal.

It is very important to set performance and not outcome goals, because athletes who set performance versus outcome goals experience less anxiety and more confidence and satisfaction. You should set goals over issues which you have as much control as possible there is nothing worse than failing to achieve a personal goal for reasons that are beyond your control. According to Laura Rader, students need to identify their obstacles, and make a list of the things that they need to do so they can achieve them (Rader, p.124).

According to Shane Murphy, a sports psychologist for the U.S. Olympic team, "goals based on outcomes are exposed to things beyond your control. The quest for a peak performance is sometimes lost at the starting line, because people set out to achieve the wrong goals. Focus only on those things you can control. Since it is impossible to control the judging of an event or other competitors' performances, people should concentrate on doing their best, not winning the match or getting the big promotion. Psychologists also recommend that long-term goals, such as finishing a major project, be divided into several short-term goals, so that the positive feedback of achieving one goal helps to propel one toward the next (Allman).

Having the skill of concentration is just as important as having the skill of goal setting. If you cannot maintain the concentration on the goals that you have set, then it is pointless to even set goals for yourself. When you are focused very much on completing your goal, you will give it your best performance. There are many benefits when we effectively focus and concentrate on our goals. When we focus our attention, it is very useful in studying, reading, memorization, sports, etc. We identify more details, instead of jumping from one idea to another; we examine the details. Therefore, we learn more about what we are focused on and we remember more about the object.

During the week before my second exam, I set a number of specific short term goals. A few of the goals were moderately difficult; however, they were very realistic. The long term goals that I set were to receive above an 80 percent on the exam, and to continue to use these study habits for other exams throughout the next two quarters. The first goal was to study an hour each day during the week. This is an area were I feel that I needed to really focus on. In the past, I have had a bad habit of cramming in the last day before the exam. I have noticed that when I put in the effort I score 80 percent or better. When I cram in the last hours I usually receive 70-75 percent scores.

The second goal that I set was to work on practice problems for 30 to 40 minutes a day. Typically, those problems are similar to problems that are going to be on an exam. Along with practicing the problems,

...