The power of goal setting Goal setting is key to athletic success. Michael Johnson, the only athlete ever to win 200-meter-dash and 400-meter-dash gold medals in the same Olympics, attributes much of his success to the motivational effects of highly specific goals. “The importance of specificity can’t be overstated. If I’d just set goals of running well in the 400 and the 200 … I might have settled for less” (Johnson, 1996, p. 13).