When considering the fundamental skills that improve our climbing performance, we start with goal setting. It directly influences an individual's motivation for training, the drive towards achieving new levels, the energy invested into a program, and their overall persistence to continue when it gets challenging.
Your goals should be specific and measurable. This gives you a benchmark to focus on and compare against in the future. For example, instead of saying "I want to climb v10," specify the type of v10 boulder you want to send, and the specific skills you need to develop.
Make your goals measurable. If you want to be more positive during a session, quantify it - aim for a 7 out of 10 on your positivity scale, for instance.
Your goals should be challenging, but still achievable. If your goals are too easy, motivation drops. If they're too difficult, it leads to frustration and self-doubt. For example, if you're currently a v4 climber aiming to climb v10 in a year, that might be too ambitious. Instead, aim for something attainable like v6 or v7 range within a year.
Set both short-term and long-term goals. This helps maintain sustained energy and motivation, keeping you on track. For instance, your long-term goal (2-5 years) might be to climb v11, while your short-term goals (next month to a year) might involve climbing v6 or v7.
Visualize your goal-setting as a pyramid: your current ability level is the bottom step, your ultimate goal is the top, and everything in between consists of process or performance steps that build on one another, leading you to where you want to go.