Vision Statements for Seasonal Performance
A vision statement is just that: a statement of the vision / intention, or goal, of an organization, or individual athlete. The vision statement is a personal contract with yourself for ethical behavior, performance goals, and more specifically how you wish to portray yourself to yourself, the team, the college or university. The vision statement represents the guiding principles for which you will commit to as you strive to achieve the goals you have set for your athletic pursuits for the coming year.
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Vision Statement for Individual Athletes
What is a Vision Statement?
A vision statement is just that: a statement of the vision / intention, or goal, of an organization, or individual athlete. The vision statement is a personal contract with yourself for ethical behavior, performance goals, and more specifically how you wish to portray yourself to yourself, the team, the college or university. The vision statement represents the guiding principles for which you will commit to as you strive to achieve the goals you have set for your athletic pursuits for the coming year. The vision statement can vary in length, structure, and content. It can be a paragraph long or simply one or two sentences. The vision statement can serve to be your daily “mantra” and represents your deepest convictions about how you wish to be as an athlete. When the chips are down, the vision statement can serve to remind you of what, when, where, and why behind you desire to be the best you can be.
- Guides daily behavior – analyze personal actions, and attitudes
- Serves as a reminder of why you are doing what you do
- Reduces ambiguity – serves as a decision making tool. This represents your purpose and vision.
- Facilitates objective decision making – decreases emotional responses to decision making by making it more objective and dispassionate. It keeps the emotions out of the way. When emotional states are in flux, it helps to put a behavioral response in context. For example, if the vision statement espouses respect for self, treating self without judgment or discontent, and values skill development and process thinking over winning, statistics, or end results – the overall meaning of the intent becomes more related to personal values. In the end your vision statement has in the best interest the “team goals”, but establishes the importance you place on your contribution and how you continue to remain motivated through adversity.
- Requires it be in some form associated with the overall team goals. For example, to win the championship one game at a time by first winning the conference championship one game at a time.
- It works because you have a written committed and vested interest in meeting your goals, contributing to your success, the team’s success, and most importantly having balance in life and fun.
The vision statement is designed to create a vision for the future, be clear about where you are going, convey a positive sense of purpose, promote shared as well as individual values, and finally it inspires the athlete to motivate and take action.
Example: “Become the most dominant shooting PG on the team, conference, and country and in doing so contribute to the teams ultimate goal of a Pac 10 championship first, and NCAA championship second by motivating and empowering myself to contribute to the best of my ability without fear while honoring the game and adhering to the schools, the conference, and teams code of conduct.”
Homework Assignment: Create your own vision statement and email to me. Feel free to take any part of what I have written and incorporate into your own personal vision statement.
If you would like to learn more about the power of Vision Statements and how they can actually help with focus and overall goal achievement, please call me @ 800-608-1120, or visit www.protexsports.com and send me your thoughts.
John R. Ellsworth, M.A., – Mental Game Coach – Protex Sports, LLC, 800-608-1120
