Olympic swimmer Peter Vanderkaay shares how setting goals has helped him both in and outside of sports.
Video Transcript
Hi, I’m Peter Vanderkaay and I’m a TrueSport athlete. Setting goals is the first important step for achieving success in any activity. It’s a reminder of what you’re working towards and without them it can be difficult to tell if you’re improving at your sport.
When I first started swimming, I wasn’t very fast and I felt like all the kids my age were faster than me. I didn’t get serious about swimming until I turned 14, when I started going to every practice, listening to the coaches, and setting goals. Once I started to accomplish my first goals, it felt really good and it became even easier to set more goals and improve my times.
Eventually, setting more challenging goals allowed me to make the United States Olympic team and win four Olympic medals. Although the strategy I use for accomplishing my goals first came through swimming, learning to set goals is something I use every day in my life outside of sports. Even if you don’t always reach your goals, that’s okay because the most important thing is to just keep trying. If you do that, you can accomplish just about anything.
