Rushall Thoughts, 1992.

Very long-distant goals, such as career goals, are related to performance in that they provide standards against which current or shorter-term standards can be evaluated. They have no effect upon performance of relatively immediate tasks because they function more in performance evaluation rather than performance direction. They assist in some knowledge of progress toward some ultimate definition of performance. They do not direct behavior at all. They provide an adequate framework for feedback about performance progress/assessment.

Short-term/immediate goals direct behavior and affect behavior. They structure the content of performance and assist in self-generated concurrent feedback.

These two perspectives indicate how the distance of a goal changes its function and relationship to sporting behavior.

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