INPUT ARTICLE: Article: You’ve already put together a long-term plan with short-term goals. This will help you stay on target, and keep you from giving up when the end seems too distant. To make things even more manageable, you can also break short-terms goals into smaller parts.  Take academic goals. Say that you want to be a high-school teacher. In the long-term you’ll have to go to college for a bachelor’s degree in education and maybe take a teaching certification course. In the short-term, though, you can focus on getting good grades and for a mid-term goal being accepted into a teaching program. Athletic goals are similar. In order to be a top swimmer, break things into smaller parts. First, train hard and improve your times and work on your free-style, butterfly, and different strokes. Try to qualify for local or regional swim competitions. Later, as you improve, aspire to state or even national meets. Draw up plans for each substep, plans for each smaller part toward your big plan. Try to keep the big picture in mind and how each part fits into the whole. Step back from time to time to review your goals and your progress toward them. Doing so will help you to maintain focus. You may also find that you need to revise or even to rethink your long-term goals.  Things won’t always work out as you intend. Stay flexible. For example, just because you weren’t able to advance past the state meet as a swimmer does not mean you have failed. Perhaps it opens new doors as a swim instructor, or perhaps that chapter of your life will close. Or, maybe you can change up your training and your diet and try again. People peak at different times in their lives, so maybe the next time around will be your time. Staying open to new experiences and skills will help you stay flexible. Say that you have to take anatomy to get in to your pre-med program. You’ve never taken anatomy before! Rather than be discouraged and give up, embrace the opportunity to take on a challenge and to learn something new. You might need to make small changes to the long-term plan. While working toward your bachelor’s, for example, you might realize that your passion is in pedagogical research rather than teaching. You could aim for graduate school instead of becoming a high school teacher. Breaking down tasks and assessing your progress – these are important. But equally important is to recognize and celebrate your successes. Let yourself relish the triumphs, even if they are little. Celebrations will keep you motivated and give you something to anticipate.  Treat yourself when you’ve reached a milestone. For example, celebrate with a day off, an outing to the movies, or by popping open some champagne with your loved ones. Even small gestures of celebration work, boosting your sense of accomplishment, your self-esteem, and your focus. There will be hiccups on the road to your goals, for sure, and you should plan for setbacks. Use failures to your advantage rather than becoming discouraged, though. Learn from mistakes, adjust, and move forward.  Setbacks happen to everyone and are very common every day, even the most successful people. Evaluate what happened. Say that you flunked a class in your degree program. Was it because of bad planning, bad preparation, bad execution, or something beyond your control? Figure out what went wrong and why and then try to make the necessary adjustments. Apply what you have learned in the future. Say that you failed “Pedagogy 101” in your teaching program because the material was very hard – and very boring. Knowing this, you might reconsider your previous plans to go to graduate school.

SUMMARY: Break down tasks into smaller parts. Track your progress and be willing to adjust. Celebrate success. Anticipate setbacks.

INPUT ARTICLE: Article: Beginner tennis players often serve the ball using all of their speed and strength. You don't need to hit the ball with all your might, though! Don’t put 100% of your energy into a serve. Professional players tend to give about 80% energy. When you serve, focus more on accuracy than power. Practice hitting the ball exactly where you want it to go rather than just hitting is as hard as you can. Concentrate on your aim. Carve out time in your tennis routine to work on practice serves. By putting your weight on your back leg, you’ll set yourself up to create momentum going forward. This will make it so your body moves in a much more fluid and natural way when you take your shot. Even though this sounds easy, every tennis player must master this skill. Train your eyes on the ball when your opponent serves it to you. Make it the focus of your entire vision. Follow it as it comes to you. Watch as you hit it with your racket. Then, continue to follow the ball as it moves across the court.  Keep your head still and your eyes on the ball even when it makes contact with your racquet. It's natural to want to look ahead at your target, but you have to break this habit.  Remind yourself during every practice to do this and it will eventually become second nature. Don’t rush your shots. Use as much time as you can to serve, position yourself, and to gather your thoughts between points. If you rush yourself unnecessarily, you’ll break your focus and take shots that are inaccurate. Avoid putting a death grip on your racket. This will not only tire your hand out quickly, but it’ll probably take you longer to respond to your opponent’s shot. Instead, hold the racket loosely and gently. While this may take some getting used to, you’ll be able to improve your power and accuracy. Some people restring their racquets themselves, but  unless you have a tennis stringing machine and a few special tools, it's better to hire a professional to do it. Once you do, you’ll likely see some improvements in your hits. This is especially true if you feel as if you don’t have a hard enough serve. Look up tennis shops or sporting goods stores in your area, and call to find out if they do restringing. Many of them do.

SUMMARY:
Focus on accuracy, not speed, when serving the ball. Put all your weight on your back leg before you take a shot. Keep your eyes on the ball at all times. Move slowly and deliberately on the court. Hold your racket gently, if your swing is rigid or slow. Restring your racquet if your swing becomes weak or inaccurate.