My nine year old daughter and I spent a lot of time swimming over vacation. One day we went into the deep end of the pool. She said that she wanted to try to touch the bottom with her hand.

She is a pretty good swimmer but is still learning about how much breath she has and how to best navigate deep water. She’s also very buoyant.

We tried for about 30 minutes but she couldn’t get down to the bottom. She’d go down about five feet and then turn around and swim back to the surface. We even tried having her hold on to me so she could get down faster but even that didn’t work.

Then she had an idea. She told me to throw a diving ring into the deep end and she’d see if she could get it. Sure enough on the very first try she swam straight to the bottom and retrieved the ring.

Just having that simple goal made all the difference in her “ability” to get to the bottom. That’s the power that goals can have on performance. Setting a goal can improve focus, motivation, and action.