Share your goals

When you share your goals, you’re not just doing it for accountability purposes: sharing a goal means that deep down, you believe that you can achieve it, and that it’s a good idea. “Goals that are shared are windows to athletes’ souls about their confidence that they can pull them off,” Marshall says. “Each of us has a level of self-efficacy of whether we can pull something off. Self-efficacy is our perception that we can or can’t do something. Some cyclists will set goals that are only tangentially related to cycling, and not tell a coach even though they know that their new goal – like only eating 900 calories a day and intermittent fasting – will affect their training and should be shared. Deep down, they know it makes no sense. They know their coaches will know it doesn’t make sense. But they’re thinking this is a quick way to drop weight quickly. They’ll do that and then fast track their way to leanness.” If you’re not comfortable sharing any and all health/nutrition/training goals with a coach or training partner, ask yourself if you’re keeping it to yourself because you know you might not pull it off, or because deep down, you know it’s not a healthy goal.