With competition in the college athletic industry at a feverish pitch, setting and resetting goals and strategic decisions are becoming more than annual items. A programs ability to work tirelessly in the present but envision the future is vital to staying ahead of peer universities. Assessing and reassessing the department’s standing often becomes hyper cyclical. With some summer downtime, here are a few tips to reassess your health goals.
Did You Win or Lose?
Athletic departments view success similar to its individual programs. They are both looking for wins versus losses. The question is what does each department view as a win or lose? This calendar year you set health goals…hopefully! Where were your wins or loses? Let’s hope victories were plenty. But we all know and expect that not all will go our way when it comes to reaching our goals. Look at your health goals. Write down your wins and losses and based off of that reassess your health goals.
What Worked?
An athletic department’s key performance indicators (KPI’s) may be items such as profit, number of season ticket holders, and brand awareness. Strategies are developed in these areas. Season ticket campaigns. Maybe digital marketing for brand awareness. Health KPI’s or goals are typically weight management or stress reduction. What strategies did you implement in those areas? Did these strategies work? If exercising at 5am worked, stick with that. Also, there may be strategies that would have worked had you fully carried them out. It is important to identify them.
What Didn’t Worked?
As a student-athlete who attended a mid-major university, I’ve always rooted for the underdog. I love seeing programs succeed who were once down. I remember Prairie View A&M football’s 80-game losing streak. Or Cal Tech basketball’s 26-year conference game losing streak. It was obvious some strategies were not working. When looking at your health strategies, you should really think about why it didn’t work. Did you not put forth a true effort? Was the strategy ever a workable one? It is important that you know what didn’t work and why.
The summer is a great time to reassess your health goals. Use this time to review your health goals. Where were your wins and losses? What strategies work in your favor, what strategies didn’t? Continue on your journey using trusted strategies when possible. Or change course using new strategies.