As We Achieve Our Goals

It’s a popular discussion piece in the treatment and therapy today. We seem to start touching on this subject once our problem(s) begin stabilizing. Whether it’s gaining control of a mental health disease like Bipolar, Anxiety, Massive Depressive Disorder, or Alcoholism/Addiction. We start to see things more clearly again. The cobwebs are going away. We begin trying to start the process of picking up from wherever the hell we left off, see what’s broke, see who is still willing to talk to us again, as well as who have now written me off.
If by some miracle we’re still employed, there’s a good chance that the job is hanging on by a thread. If we are unemployed, we must start to the difficult road to finding a job. Something, that seems so impossible because we haven’t done it sober in years.
In a nutshell, whether we want to or not, we must start to begin the journey to once again setting goals, and successfully achieving those goals.
Define an goal you’d like to achieve. Is it realistic? Attainable? Positive? Is it something that will improve your life? Also, don’t forget the most important question; is it something that you want? Is it something that you want for yourself, or are you pursuing it to please others? As the above diagram shows, we need to define and lay out what we’d like to achieve.

It should obviously be something that we really want. Something that our heart is yearning for. There’s got to be something about it that we truly believe in.
Sometimes, there are goals that we can’t just wing it, to find success with it. Often a good goal or a good idea requires planning & outlining. It is something that best prepared for by putting it in writing, on paper, in front of our eyes.

When it’s being outlined on paper, it becomes permanent. It’s not just in our mind, where the risk of forgetting is prevalent. It becomes a record. It’s something that can be easily edited or changed. It becomes a goal that is significantly easier to review. If it’s something we want trusting advice or input on, we simply let a loyal confidant read through.
Now, the time has come where we need to make the plan for the goal realistic. Make it more than just a dream. Determine a time frame. Estimate how long it will take, and what date you’d like to begin working on achieving the goal. Don’t just talk about it. Talking about it does not bring anything to life.

Determining a start date, time frame, and a due date, it tends to hold us to more accountability. Remember, this isn’t boot camp. The plan needs to be realistic. A goal and time frame that isn’t impossible.
So, as it says above, “Make It Happen”. It may not always come as fast, or as the exact way you want it, but, there is no reason we can’t achieve realistic goals once we are stabilized in our lives. We will likely learn many lessons along the journey, and those lessons may be ones that we take with us for a long time.

It will be like a domino effect whereas the lessons we learn through the tough journeys of achieving goals, will be the same fuel used to make future goals, even more achievable. The biggest question we need to always ask ourselves is=
Are the goals & achievements we’re accomplishing, moving toward your values, or are they moving always from your values?

