A Grounded Way for Athletes to Start the Year

The end of one year and the start of the next can feel heavy as an athlete.

There’s pressure to reset.

To recommit.

To decide right now what kind of season this is going to be.

Speaking for myself, I’m midst of planning and plotting next year’s races — entering race lotteries—creating training plans.

For some athletes, goal setting feels motivating. For others, it brings anxiety, self-doubt, or a quiet sense of dread, especially if you’re coming off injury, burnout, or a season that didn’t unfold the way you hoped.

If that’s you, it’s often not a motivation issue. It’s a sign that goal setting is missing context.

This is a different way to start the year.
One that keeps ambition intact while reducing unnecessary pressure.

The Problem With Starting the Year With Only Outcome Goals

Traditional goal setting usually starts with outcomes:

Finish a race
Hit a specific time
Qualify for something
Train more consistently than last year

Outcome goals matter. But when they’re the only thing anchoring your season, they tend to turn into rules:

If I don’t hit this, the season was a failure.
If I fall short, something is wrong with me.

In long, unpredictable sports, especially endurance and mountain sports, that mindset creates tension, overthinking, and rigid decision-making. That’s not a discipline problem. It’s a missing-context problem.

Start With Vision: A Picture of the Horizon

Before setting goals, it helps to zoom out and look toward the horizon.

Vision is a clear picture of what you see happening.

Sport Psychologist Michael Gervais described in a recent webinar that vision is “a bold, audacious idea of a compelling future that challenges, inspires, and drives you beyond what’s probable…to what’s possible.”

It’s what you imagine when you picture yourself in the season, the race, or the training process.

Vision answers questions like:

What do I want this to look like when I’m living it?
How do I want training days to feel in my body?
What do I picture on race mornings, in low points, or late in the effort?

For many athletes, vision is sensory:

Moving through training with steadiness instead of panic
Racing with presence rather than constant second-guessing
Making decisions from awareness, not urgency
Staying engaged in the process even when things get uncomfortable

Vision isn’t a demand. It’s an anchor. When motivation dips or conditions change, as they always do, vision gives your nervous system something to orient toward beyond numbers and metrics.

Values: How You Move Toward the Horizon

If vision is the picture, values are how you move within it.

Values aren’t goals and they aren’t personality traits.

They’re adverbs.

They describe how you want to show up:

In training
In competition
In recovery
In how you treat yourself, others, and the environment you’re moving through

For athletes, values might sound like:

Training curiously instead of critically
Competing patiently, especially early
Responding to setbacks honestly, without catastrophizing
Recovering respectfully, rather than punitively

Values matter because they’re available every day—good days, bad days, and ordinary ones.

For athletes with ADHD or a tendency to overthink, values are especially grounding. When focus, energy, or motivation fluctuate, values offer a steady way to keep moving forward without needing everything to feel perfect.

Outcome Goals: Naming the Specific Result You’re Aiming For

Once vision and values are clear, outcome goals can take their proper place.

Outcome goals are specific, concrete, and measurable:

Finishing the Leadville 100
Completing Javelina Jundred under 20 hours
Qualifying for the Boston Marathon
Climbing Mount Rainer

These goals matter. They give structure and direction to training. They answer the question:

What am I actually trying to do?

Problems arise when outcome goals exist on their own, without vision and values underneath them.

How Vision and Values Support Big Outcome Goals

Take a goal like finishing the Leadville 100.

Outcome goal: Finish the race.
Vision: What do you want that experience to look and feel like when you picture yourself in it?
- Moving steadily through the night
- Making calm decisions under fatigue
- Staying responsive rather than reactive when things get hard

Now take a goal like running sub-20 at Javelina

Outcome goal: Finish under 20 hours.
Values: How do you want to pursue that outcome?
- Pacing patiently instead of forcing early speed
- Fueling deliberately, not emotionally
- Treating your body respectfully, even late in the race

Vision helps you orient when the race doesn’t unfold as planned and helps inspire you when things get rough.

Values guide your decisions moment to moment.

Together, they support performance rather than undermine it.

Why This Matters—Especially in Long, Unpredictable Events

In ultras, marathons, and mountain sports, things rarely go exactly according to plan.

When outcome goals are held too tightly, setbacks turn into threats:

Being behind pace feels catastrophic
Fatigue feels like failure
Adaptation feels like weakness

Holding outcome goals within vision and values doesn’t lower standards. It widens your capacity to respond when conditions change. You still care deeply about the result. You’re just not letting it dictate every decision or your sense of worth under fatigue.

Putting It All Together

A simple framework:

Vision: What do I see on the horizon? What do I want this to look and feel like?

Values: How do I want to move toward it? How do I want to treat myself and others along the way?

Outcome Goal: What specific result am I aiming for?

The outcome may change. The timeline may shift. Vision and values help you stay oriented no matter what happens.

If You’re Feeling Stuck or Overwhelmed

If setting goals feels heavy, it doesn’t mean you lack motivation.

Often it means:

You care deeply
You’ve been burned by rigid expectations
Your nervous system is trying to protect you

That’s not something to push through. It’s something to work with.

The start of a new year isn’t a test. It’s a checkpoint. You’re allowed to choose a horizon, a way of moving, and a destination that help you stay in the game long-term.

I work with endurance and mountain athletes in Colorado who want to pursue big goals without sacrificing their mental health in the process.

Vision, Values, and Outcome Goals