Marathon legend Bill Rodgers is a master at self-motivation. The thing that’s kept him running ambitiously for the last four decades is that he’s always working toward a goal. For Rodgers, that usually means a key race or series of races over the next three to six months. That’s a short enough amount of time that the goal isn’t so distant as to be abstract, but long-term enough that it provides impetus to his running in the weeks and months before, as it gives him something to look forward to achieving.
Rodgers’ goals are always models of what sport psychologists say are good goals: personally meaningful, measurable, specific, challenging but within reach and tiered (meaning that it’s easy to create short-term goals that build to the long-term goal). Eliminate any of those elements, and the goal doesn’t serve as successful of a motivator. For example, remove the specificity aspect, and “I want to break 40:00 for 10K” becomes “I want to run faster for 10K.” In the latter case, it’s quite likely you could achieve your goal almost immediately, and then what?
One great thing about goals the way Rodgers sets them is that they give immediate meaning to what he runs daily. Knowing that he aims to run a certain time for a certain distance on a certain date, he then works backward from that date and creates a training plan that builds logically to achieving that goal. What he does today is informed by where he is on the path to that goal as well as what he did last week and what he’ll do next week to meet it.