Goals are an important part of an athletic career. They can be useful for several reasons: 1. Goals counter boredom. By continually aiming for something just out of reach, you can keep your day-to-day routine challenging. Studies have suggested that the best way to be "in the zone" is to be involved in a task that is neither so routine as to be boring nor so challenging as to be frustrating. Once you master a skill, up the ante and try to master new ones.

To map out an athletic career, you need to decide what you want to achieve and why. Maybe you love sports so much that you'd be satisfied with just enough income to cover training expenses. Maybe you want to become rich and famous and you think sports will get you there. Maybe you've created a new sport and want to promote it.Different athletes have different goals. Some have very ambitious ones. They want to be the best in the world and set records.

A sports career will require that you give it time and resources. To be successful, you will have to make choices and compromises. You may miss social activities with family and friends; you might have to postpone certain educational and career plans; you may have leave home to train and compete. The results of a survey of athletes representing the United States at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics gives a good portrait of life at the top level of sports:

Sponsorship is money given to an athlete to underwrite training and living expenses. Being sponsored is the way many full-time athletes survive in sports that don't pay salaries or offer serious prize money. The term sponsorship is a broad one which covers a range of financial arrangements: 1. Private sponsors.
Sometimes when athletes say they have sponsors, they mean wealthy fans who provide some or all of their financial support. There is usually no business arrangement between them. Most sponsors become involved because they want to help out promising athletes, not because they expect a tangible return.

One of the easiest ways to break into the sports business is to become a promoter. The concept is fairly simple: 1. Come up with an idea that you think fans will pay to watch. 2. Find athletes willing to participate in the event. 3. Find a place to stage the event. 4. Publicize the event. 5. Sell tickets and put the event on.
6. If you make money, do it again next year or in a different place or with different athletes.

Most successful sports promoters have learned one very important lesson: sports equals entertainment. Sports events, concerts, CDs, ski trips, cable television, and movies all compete for the same entertainment dollars. You've got to give your fans a good time to capture their money.  "Selling sports solely on the win-loss column is very risky. More teams are destined to lose than win. My philosophy has been to sell a night of entertainment.