Links Between Goals and Our Thoughts, Feelings, and Actions
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Achievement situations in which athletes have an opportunity to display physical prowess (i.e., in training or matches) activate their task or ego centered goals. They might be either highly task involved or ego involved in that situation, or they might even switch between the two, because their perception of what they need to feel could change from second to second.
For example, imagine yourself as a young soccer player in a knockout match. You’ve felt great during the match because you’ve worked hard, made some great tackles and accurate passes, and your work on your concentration skills has paid off by allowing you to refocus quickly. You’ve spent most of the game in a highly task-involved state of mind and have received praise from your teammates.
The game is tied and goes to a penalty shoot-out. You are the last player of five selected, and the score is 2-2. As you make that long walk to the penalty spot, how does the situation and its potential consequences affect your view of success and competence? Will your feelings of competence depend entirely on scoring or missing? And, if you do become ego involved, how might it affect your chances of getting that winning goal?
All athletes have an innate preference for task or ego involved goals in sport. These predispositions, referred to as task and ego goal orientations, are believed to develop throughout childhood largely due to the types of people the athletes come in contact with and the situations they are placed in.
If children consistently receive parental praise that’s reliant on their degree of input and recognition for personal improvement from their coaches, and are encouraged to learn from their errors, then they are likely to foster a task orientation. It becomes natural for them to believe that success is associated with mastery, effort, understanding, and personal responsibility.
The behavior of their role models in sport also affects this development. Such an environment is far different from one where kids are rewarded by rewards for winning (alone), praise for the best grades, criticism or non-selection despite making their best effort, or coaches whose style is to hand out unequal recognition. This kind of environment helps an ego orientation to develop, along with the belief that ability and talent, not effort and personal endeavor, earn success.
Goal orientations are believed to be relatively stable and enduring characteristics that are largely formed by mid to late teen-age. Therefore, coaches and parents should attempt to shape a child’s development as early as possible during the 6- to 14-year-old phase.
In this developmental period, children’s cognitive abilities start working overtime as they begin to understand that effort isn’t the sole reason for success at a sport. At about 11 or 12 years of age, they begin to realise that regardless of effort, some kids simply have more ability than others. That’s when the fantasy of being the next sports star comes under obvious pressure for some children.
The strength of a goal orientation influences whether an athlete will adopt a task or ego involved goal in a specific sport scenario. It is also perfectly feasible for growing athletes to develop both high task and ego orientations if they have been exposed to an assortment of task and ego oriented situations and people. However, never underestimate the power of a particular situation.
The evolving athlete might be quite high in task orientation, but in a competition with a high degree of public evaluation, judgment, criticism, or comparison based on who’s best, with rewards and benefits for winners and negative consequences for losers, he or she may become ego involved. Competitions accompanied by high perceived expectations and consequences arguably form the natural spine of professional sport.
Factors such as the stage of the event (e.g., final or qualifying match), whether selection is at stake, previous head-to-heads, financial rewards, age of the opponent (e.g., playing a talented younger player), representing the team or country for the first time, and the hostility of the audience can make competition a natural ego-involving laboratory.
Nevertheless, not all sport is like that; in fact, some sport situations offset the natural importance of superiority by emphasising participation and publicly reinforcing or rewarding personal effort, improvement, and problem solving rather than focusing on comparisons.
An example is a swimming club that encourages all standards of swimmer, with a coach who gives recognition solely based on individual improvements in time or technique. These scenarios increase the importance and number of task-involving cues. The key message here is that the availability of task-involving cues in sports that are naturally ego involving allows the athlete to develop a more task-involved approach to competition.
If you’re looking for FIFA Players Agents, a Football Academy or Australian Football Tours, contact the Football Management Group.
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US Military Swords, Sabers, and Navy Cutlasses
“Their uses then and now”
Military swords have served as necessary weapons for the Army’s and Navy’s of the world, for many centuries. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the shorter “smallsword” became an essential fashion accessory in European countries and the New World, and most wealthy men and military officers carried one. Prior to the First World War, these swords were a part of military uniforms for officers and enlisted personnel alike.
The first US Government contract for Military Swords was in 1798 and was awarded to a US manufacturer in Connecticut. Prior to the Civil War there was little need for US Military Swords. The US Government purchased relatively small orders for swords and cutlasses during the first half of the 19th century. These orders were placed with a variety of US manufacturers.
Beginning with the onset of the Civil War, the need for Military Swords and Navy Cutlasses increased tremendously. More than half the Swords made in the United States, were made between 1861 and 1866. The leading Sword manufacturer during this period was a Massachusetts Company, Ames Manufacturing Company.
All United States Military Officers continue to wear approved Swords for ceremonial purposes. The US Marine Corps Non Commissioned Officer is the only NCO, in the US Military, authorized to wear a sword as part of their uniform. The Marine NCO Sword is the oldest sword in continuous use, since 1859, and the US Air Force, the newest, since 1955. Photos and descriptions of these approved swords can be seen on http://www.militarydisplaysonline.com.
Following retirement, or separation, most Officer’s Swords and Marine NCO Swords end up in a closet or a box in the attic. During the last several years, there have been a variety of devises available, for displaying “Fantasy Swords” and Asian Military Swords. Until recently, there has been little attention paid to the design and crafting of quality displays for US Military swords and Navy Cutlasses. There is now a small Spokane Valley, Washington company, www.militarydisplaysonline.com, dedicated to producing, and offering, custom displays for US Military Swords.
About Author
In 2004 a Marine veteran, and a lifelong woodworker, began designing and producing Custom American Hardwood displays for all currently approved US Military Swords, and can be seen at www.militarydisplaysonline.com. You can visit http://www.militarydisplaysonline.com for more information
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A good marketing advertisement pays attention to both copy and design. But always, always, always, compose the copy first. The design must reemphasize the strongest points in the copy, and never be created independently of it.
Otherwise, your ad look great but have too little substance, or have a visual message at odds with the text, or force your most important points into some hard-to-read corner.
Copywriters often have a sense of good design, and prepare a rough layout for the designer to work from (or, if the design is simple, actually create both elements together). But trying to fit copy to suit illustration and design is a definite no-no.
The only exception is in a very small piece. In some instances, like a business card with a strong graphic, you may have a very clear idea of the look before you write the text. If the whole idea is to dominate the page with a graphic, such as your company logo, and fit in contact information around it, obviously the words come second.
But always ask yourself if this card is doing the strongest selling job it can. Maybe you need a sales sentence and should shrink the logo down a bit unless your product, too, is graphically oriented. Make sure the artwork is appropriate to your message and if it is not, junk the concept.
Effective Copywriting and Great copywriting:
1. Catches the reader’s attention with something relevant;
2. Addresses the reader’s fears, anxieties, or aspirations;
3. Stresses benefits to the user, not the features that lead to those benefits;
4. Offers to solve the reader’s problem, in the most specific terms possible;
5. Gives the reader with a chance to acquire something of clear benefit, but only for a limited time;
6. Pulls the reader toward an immediate next step;
7. Shows the consequences of a failure to act;
8. Backs up claims with comparisons to competitors;
9. Includes solid, substantial validation of your claim by someone else (a customer, an expert); and
10. This should be obvious, make sure you provide the necessary order form, address, telephone number and e-mail to allow the reader to purchase.
You may not get all ten in every marketing creation, but aim to include as many as you can. These group together into several bunches.
Writing promotional material is both a science and an art. Doing your own press release or flier copy is pretty straightforward. But if you’re going to spend a lot of money doing a brochure or newsletter, make sure the copy is up to snuff.
Certainly you can try to do your own, following the principles outlined above. But before you set the type, try out the piece on people who will give you accurate and detailed feedback. Writers who sell are writers who revise, so be prepared to do several drafts. Then leave it for a few days and come back to it with a fresh mind.
Or call in outside help. Either outline the project to a writer and wait for a draft, or write the first draft yourself and then let an editor put the magic in it. Whether you or the outside consultant prepare the first draft, expect to play with it. Make sure each section uses strong sales language. Examine the different sections together, to see if they fit well and are in the right order.
Where do you find writers and editors? Get recommendations from other business owners whose marketing materials you respect. Look in the Yellow Pages under Editorial Services, Marketing Consultants, Public Relations, or Publicity. Or, of course, have a look on web sites like elance.com or getacoder.com
If you’re looking for a Web page editor in Brisbane, visit johnhacking.com For SEO Consultant Brisbane, visit Search Tempo Pty Ltd. If you want SEO training Sydney, then contact Search Tempo.
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