3 Places Your Goals Go

(140822) -- NANJING, Aug 22, 2014 (Xinhua) -- Matheus Paulo de Santana of Brazil celebrates after winning the Men's 100m Freestyle match at Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, on Aug. 22, 2014.Matheus Paulo de Santana of Brazil won the gold medal. (Xinhua/Yan Yan)(hhx)

Photo Courtesy: Xinhua/Yan Yan

By Diana Pimer, Swimming World College Intern

Dream of goals, set them, work toward them, and then achieve them. This is the repeated path for swimmers everywhere. Some goals are easily accomplished, while others take more planning and effort.

Some goals are achieved and others are not. Along with this comes a string of emotions ranging from happiness to heartbreak. Not everything happens exactly as you planned it in your head, many things can happen along the way.

Figuratively, here are 3 places your goals go:

1. The Trash

Photo Courtesy: flickr

Sometimes, smaller goals must get pushed aside in order to achieve bigger ones. For example, when I was 10 the biggest goal I had was to get 100 trophies. As a recreational swimmer this was an attainable goal that made me wide-eyed at the thought of it. When I was 11, I switched to USA Swimming, where you don’t receive the same awards after winning championship races. Since then, this is the first time I have thought about this goal. Simply, I threw this goal away.

The same holds true for many high-school aged swimmers who come to the realization that we cannot all be Olympians. This is another goal that for many gets thrown away. This isn’t attainable for some swimmers. And while every young swimmer knows they can make the Olympic Games, others know the necessity of achieving more attainable goals.

For some people, a lot of swimmers actually, being an Olympian is attainable. But even Olympians realize that some goals need to thrown away in order to achieve bigger ones. I many never have 100 trophies, but I continue to set new, attainable goals everyday.

2. The Showcase

Photo Courtesy: Jerry Lai3.

Some goals will make you infinitely happy: an Olympic gold medal, a world record, a best time. You will have these memories with you for a lifetime, and can hang that medal right in your own personal showcase. You set a goal and achieved it. This is an accomplishment that every swimmer should be proud of no matter what the goal was.

3. The Back of Your Closet

Photo Courtesy: Taylor Brien

Lastly, there are some goals that we don’t end up in the showcase, but that we never threw away. Some goals, even attainable ones, do not get achieved. Sometimes, swimmers do everything right, do everything they can to prepare, and just fall short of accomplishing their goals. These times, the goals get put in the back of their closets.

Once in a while, you clean your room. And when you clean your room you clean your closet. In the back of the closet you may find old memorabilia from previous years or lost memories that you cherish, good or bad. The attainable goals we don’t accomplish are like this.

Every so often we will be reminded of these goals we didn’t accomplish. Maybe when someone else achieves it, or when you are planning new goals. More often than not, it will sting. The pain of knowing you didn’t do your best or your best just wasn’t good enough can haunt an athlete forever. Regardless, like that old picture you come across in your closet, it is important to cherish the path that got you there.

Of course this is easier said than done. Not achieving your goals is something that can take a long time to mentally overcome. But it is important to value all you went through to try. This is what makes a swimmer who they are.

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Tea Kadić

9 years ago

Josipa Nekic