It’s that time of year to set your New Year’s Resolutions!

As an Olympic athlete and CEO, I’ve learned what it means to set goals and how to achieve them with confidence. Here are some tips for setting your own goals; especially those that don’t have to do with sliding down mountains. I used them to help create Classroom Champions, an organization that connects top performing athletes with students in high-need schools using video lessons and live video chat to motivate students to recognize their potential, set goals and dream big.

Brainstorm! What’s your goal for 2015?

Make your goal something you’re passionate about and something that scares you just a little when you think about it. If it’s something you’re passionate about, you’re more likely to not give up and think about the best ways to achieve it. If it’s something you’re scared of, it’ll keep that adrenaline going every time you think about it.

How can you make it a reality? Create realistic steps.

Just because your goal will scare you doesn’t mean it shouldn’t have steps to it that don’t. Create the steps you believe you’ll need to accomplish to reach your goal… And write them down. There are some great tools for creative ways to organize your thoughts on classroomchampions.org. Head to our “Lessons” page and pick an Olympian or Paralympian you’d like to learn from.

Don’t get discouraged if you don’t reach the goal.

If you don’t reach the goal, re-evaluate! Try something different, or set a new goal that scares you just a hair less and try again..

So what’s my New Year’s Resolution? My goal for 2015 is to bring more Olympians and Paralympians to more classrooms around the world. How do I plan to achieve that? By partnering with the Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility and one of its most long-standing programs, Ask, Listen, Learn. As the most widely distributed program of its kind, Ask, Listen, Learn has already reached over 20 million kids, parents, and teachers in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. So by working together, Classroom Champions and the athletes that volunteer their knowledge can reach more kids across the country.

For more tips and tools, remember to check out this great advice on goal setting from other Olympians and Paralympians.

Happy New Year, from Classroom Champions!

 

Steve Mesler

President & CEO, Classroom Champions

3-time U.S. Olympian

2010 Olympic Gold Medalist

 

 

*The views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility (Responsibility.org) or any Responsibility.org member.*