This story is part of Peak, The Athletic_’s desk covering the mental side of sports. Follow Peak here._

In a lot of ways, creating New Year’s resolutions mirrors the process athletes go through at the start of a season. Playoffs and championships are massive aspirations, and so is the task of improving from the previous year, every year. This leads most of them to creating — and sticking to — small, actionable steps to get there.

In other words, setting goals is a pro’s speciality.

So I called up three athletes who are particularly passionate about the subject: Alec Ingold, fullback and captain of the Miami Dolphins; Tamika Catchings, a WNBA Hall of Famer; and Devon Still, a former NFL player who earned his master’s in applied positive psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. Each of them had a unique perspective on the best way to set and stick to goals.

Alec Ingold’s advice: Signals, domino effects and buckets

Ingold’s journal has personalized “buckets” of goals that he creates at the start of every season: offseason goals, preseason goals, goals for the season and career goals.

Separating goals in this way makes them easier for him to digest. The only caveat is they must be objective.

Ingold focuses a lot on the difference between subjective goals and objective goals. Saying you want to get in great shape or want to be a consistent leader is subjective. It’s hard to look back and say, “I really nailed that.” For Ingold, objective, measurable goals — such as aiming for 10 percent body fat or studying his playbook for three hours — are actionable and controllable.

“I try to be as objective as possible with goals as well as creating different lengths of time,” he said. “I have goals for next month, I have goals for the next quarter of the year, and then I have yearlong goals.”

Next to all of his goals, he writes a few sentences describing what the goal means and why he wants to accomplish it, which he said helps him see how he can reach the goal more clearly. The what, why and how, Ingold said, are building blocks. And at the bottom of his goal sheet, he adds a purpose statement: a quick sentence or two explaining why the goals exist, the impact they will have on him and how they contribute to his values.

Then, during the grind of the offseason or season, he can consistently reflect on his purpose as needed.

He also uses what he calls signals to help maintain his mindset. For example, whenever he messes up, he claps his hands. It’s an auditory and physical reset for himself to snap him out of the moment.

“A bad snap or a bad 10 minutes can kind of stop right there,” he said, “and I can be present and not allow that to leak into a bad hour, turning into a bad day, turning into a bad week.”

He starts each day with three smaller and controllable goals that he can accomplish. Something as simple as making his bed or having a solid breakfast, he said, can lead to positive momentum for his bigger goals.