Nobody has to guess what time of year it is. Everybody’s looking for that fresh start, to turn over a new leaf. The cliches of New Year’s Resolutions will be long gone for most come a month from now. I overheard a guy on the bus yesterday talking to his neighbor about how he was going to avoid the gym altogether these first couple of weeks just so he didn’t have to deal with all the “resolution-ites” getting their goal “to work out more” out of their system. I read an interesting piece recently explaining that one good way to make sure you keep your New Year’s resolution is to avoid lofty goals altogether. Set minor goals that you know you’ll be able to achieve… Bummer.
I wrote a few months ago about a college basketball coach who refused to allow any of his players to set any goals. His idea was that if they set goals too low you might gain a false sense of achievement even though the players might not have reached their full potential. I disagree with the idea in most cases, but at least its better than consciously setting the bar too low for yourself.
So what does this time of year really allow us to do, the New Year’s resolution time of year? More than anything it’s just an arbitrary marker in time that prompts us to reflect briefly on how things went this past year and how we might alter things or slightly change our focus so we might have a better year ahead.
Goal setting is a very important process in the sport of sailing, in sports altogether, and indeed the rest of our lives. What is most important is that making and achieving goals should be a considered a process. Lofty goals especially are not reached just by checking them off the list. Whether we’re conscious of them or not, there are a hundred line-items to check off between now and when our big goals will be achieved. Often we go down a path, checking off minor goals along the way, only to realize that we have missed our target and have to start over in order to get focused on our priority.
This month, I wrote an article published in Sailing World magazine that discusses the idea of taking one event this winter, or better yet, one event this year and focusing on that event as your priority. Putting that event on a pedestal and saying to yourself and your team: “that is the event at which I want to have my best possible performance this year.” It might be the local beer-can series race #3. It might be the beer-can series, or the club championships, or the national championships. By making the rest of the events you sail a clear part of the process of winning that peak event, it is likely you’ll have a more rewarding experience than trying to win every regatta you enter. Who knows? You might win a regatta that you didn’t expect to or have a great performance in a couple of other races, but maintaining focus on the event at which you want to have your best performance will make you a better sailor in the long run. By picking apart different areas of our game one practice at a time, one race at a time, and one regatta at a time, we will find ways to improve our overall performance and actually raise our potential.
Maybe the best resolution is to have fun while we’re racing this year… Learn the new rule-book… Get on the water more often… But most of all sail with people you enjoy, people who push you to strive for improvement, and people who take racing with similar intensity. Those should be easy goals to reach. Check those off the list!
My goal is to spread out and do some different sailing than I’ve been doing over the last couple of years. The lasers are being chartered instead of shipped around the world to race this year. A little J105 sailing on New Year’s Day, a Star training camp last week in Miami, Melges 32 Key West later this month. I’d better look out for too much lead (Pb) in my diet.
Thanks for reading my posts these past couple of years. I’m going to do my best to get back to writing and improving the site.
Happy New Year!
Andrew
