- 145 Page in depth guide of tricks
- Features how-to, troubleshooting, and other skate secrets
- Written by underground skater Tony Waters
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- Introduction
- Beginner's Guide
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- Guaranteeing Success
- Success Enhancers
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- Making a Skate Ramp
How To Set Your Skateboarding Goals
Now that we understand the importance of goal setting, let’s take a look the basic outline. Here is the basic 6 step process I developed for setting and achieving whatever you want:
- Decide what you want
- Write down what you want
- If possible, make each goal more specific
- Set a deadline date for each goal
- Write down enough compelling reasons for achieving your goals
- Brainstorm a few actions you can take
1. Decide what you want
If you can imagine it, you can achieve it; if you can dream it, you can become it.
– William Arthur Ward
Many years ago, it was thought by some to be impossible to run a four minute mile. Experts said it couldn’t be done. They said our cardiovascular system wasn’t ready for it. Our bone structure wasn’t right. Our muscles weren’t suitable.
In 1954, a man named Roger Banister quit believing in the “experts” and started believing in Roger Banister.
He broke the 4 minute mark and within a month, others accomplished the same thing! The four minute mile is now the standard of all professional middle distance runners. If you can imagine it, you can achieve it.
Start by telling yourself that you do deserve success when it comes to skateboarding, and the level of success you want is attainable. When you believe that it’s possible to reach what you define as success, you have taken your first step toward achieving your dreams!
As long as you accept that you can be successful when it comes to skateboarding and you are willing to take action, I am 100% confident that you will reach your goals.
But what is “success” exactly? Success is exactly what you define it to be. To some, success at skateboarding is turning pro. To others, success is being sponsored by a local skate shop.
And to others, success is being able to land Kickflips. I cannot tell you what success means to you; only you can do that. I can only help you achieve that success.
2. Write Down What you Want
Take a moment right now to jot down some your goals in your Skateboard Success Journal– write down what you want to accomplish in skateboarding.
Write what you truly desire, no matter how impossible it may seem.
Make two lists. Make a Goal Tricks list, where you include all the tricks you want to learn and an Other Goals list, where you write down anything else you want to accomplish in skateboarding.
Jot down a cool trick you saw in a skate video. Jot down a new trick that you made up. Jot down a crazy line you’ve always wanted to do. Jot down a gap or stair set you’ve dreamed of doing. There are no limits. Jot down anything you like. Here are a few initial goals I wrote down:
Goal Tricks:
- Be able to land all the tricks taught in Tony Hawk Trick Tips Vol. 2 ( this was the only resource I had to learn skateboarding tricks)
Other Goals:
- Be able to land any given trick at least 50% of the time
- Be able to Kickflip the Worcestor Bush Gap ( a popular local gap)
Over time, I added a few more goals. But the point is this: write down anything you desire, no matter how impossible or trivial they seem. Write anything from landing Ollies to getting sponsored to Smith Grinding El Toro.
You may write as many goals as you want; I only had a couple, but you may have 10, 20, or even 50 goals you want to accomplish. As I said earlier, do not dismiss a goal because it seems “impossible.” Your goals should make you feel uncomfortable because you probably have no idea how to achieve them.
The reason most people don’t set goals is that they are afraid of failing. The fear of failure inhibits us from going for what we want. We sometimes feel fear that failing to succeed will bring unbearable negative consequences.
These people rationalize (usually unconsciously) that if they never set a goal, they can never fail. Unfortunately, these people also fail to realize that the flip side of this pattern is that they will also not succeed!
If fear of failure seems to affect you and the actions you take, consider that even if you fail to realize your goal, it’s still likely that you have improved to a measurable degree along the way.
For example, maybe you set a goal to enter a local skateboard contest. It turned out that you came in dead last and felt terribly embarrassed. But consider what really matters—did you significantly improve your skating abilities in the process of pursuing the goal? If so, you efforts were totally worthwhile. Turn into a “process oriented” person, eager to learn from the process rather than focusing exclusively on the outcome.
How do we overcome this fear of failure? By setting a goal so large that it is quite possible for us to fail! You cannot have success without failure or failure without success.
The key thing here is that you MUST write it somewhere. You might ask, “do I have to write my goals down? Can’t I just remember them?” The answer is, ABSOLUTELY NOT! You must write them down on paper or type them in a document otherwise it’s not a goal. It’s simply a wish, a vague desire or a fantasy.
Many studies have shown that goals written down are much more likely to be actualized than goals kept in the back of the mind since they are much clearer and focused.
3. Make your Goals More Specific
It was a little while after I set my initial goals that I realized that it is better to be extremely specific when setting an objective.
Instead of writing “be able to land all the tricks in Tony Hawk Trick Tips Vol. 2” I should have written, “be able to land the Backside Flip, Frontside Flip, Varial Flip, 360 Flip, etc” and list out the specific trick I desired to learn.
In the same way, your desire to “get better at skateboarding” isn’t a goal. It must be specific and measurable.
This reduces the vagueness of the goal and gave your mind something specific to focus on when you skate. If you wrote any vague goals, take the time now to split them up into more specific goals.
4. Set a Date You Want to Learn the Trick by
Now that you have written down your goals, you must set a rough date you want to accomplish it by. Make sure you’re reasonable when setting the date.
I want to emphasize that this should not be seen as a “deadline.” The word, deadline turns many people off because it is associated with the idea that you’re doing something you don’t want to, but have to, since you must complete it by a certain date. The date should be seen as a goal, something to shoot for and as a way to push yourself to make sure you’re on track.
However, just because you wrote down “by tomorrow” doesn’t mean you’re going to accomplish immediately. Give yourself a reasonable amount of time to accomplish each goal.
Be sure to have fun while setting your goals. By writing down what you want and when you want it, you are setting yourself up for massive success!
5. List Reasons
Your goals must be personally meaningful. In other words, it must be worthy of your unconditional resolve and personal sacrifice. You must be willing to giving up something in order to gain something greater as a result for the allotted time-frame. It must contain real value and undeniable potential to improve your life.
Now, write down a couple of reasons for why you want to accomplish your goals. In studying goal setting, it was discovered that many fail to achieve success simply because they didn’t have clear and compelling reasons for doing so.
Do not let this sabotage your success!
Give serious thought as to why you desire to achieve a goal. Do you want to be able to land Switch Hardflips? Why? Do you want to become sponsored? Why? The more compelling reasons you have for achieving your goals, the greater your chances for accomplishing them.
Keep in mind that every person has different reasons for wanting something. One man’s junk is another man’s treasure. We all have different values, so the reasons that you give must be completely honest, strong and motivating to you.
Here are a few reasons I had for wanting to succeed at skateboarding:
- to impress my friends and family
- to be respected
- to increase my passion for skateboarding
- to be good at something and feel that sense of accomplishment
- to prove to myself I can succeed if I try
- to meet and befriend new people
- to prove to others that I can be good at something
- to have fun
The more reasons you have the better. Just be sure your reasons truly represent your desire for something.
As you constantly review your reasons, you will find yourself becoming more and more motivated to strive toward your goals. Anytime you feel frustrated, upset, angry, tired or unmotivated, all you have to do is to look over your list of reasons, and your mind will immediately shift frames, bringing back the motivation needed to accomplish your goals.
6. Brainstorm ways to achieve your goals
Now that you know what you want and why you want them, you are pretty much set on accomplish them. Your mind now has a target to aim for.
Motivational speaker, Brian Tracy, found that if you simply write your goals on a sheet of paper and put it away, you will achieve six out of seven of them in a year. How liberating is that?
Did you write everything down? If not, go back and do it now! This exercise is key to your future success in skateboarding!
In this last step, you will be coming up with ideas that will lead you to accomplishing your goals. By simply listing your goals, you are pretty much set for success. However, we can materialize our goals much quicker if we come up with ways of accomplishing them.
Now, take the time to write down a few things you can do that will lead you closer to your goals. Write down anything at all no matter how insignificant that will ultimately allow you to achieve your…