We often set goals then fail to achieve them. About 92% of people who set goals do NOT reach them. What is happening? Often, we set goals that are too high, don’t align with our actual desires, or fail to set clear actions that get us to that goal.
When dealing with an injury, goal setting is very helpful but also more challenging. There are so many factors that are outside of your control. You could say, “I’m going to be back to playing in 6 weeks.” Great…but what if you get sick and it delays your recovery time or what if you just take extra time to heal? Now, you’ve not reached your goal. How do you feel now?
We are going to talk about several components of goal-setting and how to address them in injury.
Goal Types
Sometimes we set the wrong type of goals because we don’t think about or know the differences. So, let’s break it down.
- Outcome goals | focus is on the outcome of an event, typically in comparison to others
- Performance goals | focus is on achieving a particular level of performance in comparison to one’s previous performance
- Process goals | focus is on the actions an individual must regularly engage in, in pursuit of performance and outcome goals
Examples of outcome goals in injury rehab | Examples of performance goals in injury rehab | Examples of process goals in injury rehab |
Athlete is compared to some standard and/or ability to perform in a way consistent with other athletes in their sport | Athlete is compared against their previous performance during formal assessments by the rehab professional | Athlete’s adherence to treatment recommendations is the main process goal |
• Completely healed
• Return to full fitness
• Return to practice/competition
• Regain as much function as possible | • Increase ROM
• Increase strength
• Increase endurance
• Increase power
• Increase speed
• Increase agility
• Increase balance | • Complete exercises during rehab
• Complete home exercise program
• Comply with treatment recommendations
• Avoid counterproductive activities |
As you might notice, outcome goals are the ones that you typically have less control over. Think about winning. Athletes almost always have the goal of winning, but they cannot completely control if they win the game or not. They can control effort, focus, strategy, etc. They cannot control the ultimate outcome of winning.
Your journey from injury to returning to play is much the same. You likely want to return to play, but you cannot fully control if or when that happens. Performance goals have a similar problem, but have an advantage over outcome goals. Performance goals are also outcome based, but in smaller more specific areas. So, you want to increase your strength. You can set a number goal and work to achieve that, but other factors may inhibit your ability. This is like the athlete who wants to win setting a performance goal of scoring 10 points in the game. It is less daunting and somewhat more controllable than winning. It is still not as controllable.
However, process goals are where the magic happens. You can better control these. In our example of the athlete who wants to win, a process goal might be practicing shooting drills for 30 minutes each day leading up to the game. This will help them be more capable of scoring the 10 points they want to score and hopefully leads the team to a win. Process goals are more behavior-oriented. Behaviors are much more controllable than outcomes. We want to focus on those.
Pro Tips
I help people set goals on the time. Here are a few pro-tips to help you set yourself up for success. As you read this remember that your journey through the recovery process will be different every day.
