How Counseling Can Help Reach Your Goals This Year

If you find it hard to set goals, let alone reach them, please know that you are not alone! The truth is that about 92% of people struggle to set and meet goals. You might be someone who starts the year off by making plans for things like losing weight, working out, changing careers, or maybe even finding love, only to fall short of your goals; ultimately winding up feeling down or dissatisfied with yourself.

The fact is that when we reach the goals that we set, we feel like we are more in charge of our life, feel more empowered, and feel proud of ourselves. But the opposite happens when we don’t reach our goals: we can feel hopeless, helpless, and worried that we can’t make changes in our life for the better.

How Counseling Helps

If you try to bake a cake for the first time, it will turn out best if you follow the recipe exactly. Similarly, there is a formula that must be followed to set reachable goals. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) uses that formula to help people set goals, and reach them, so that they can change behaviors and make improvements in their lives.

Studies have shown that setting goals is a helpful tool for people who feel depressed. However, research also shows that people with depression have trouble setting goals, and they often don’t think that they can reach the goals they set. Those with depression are also more likely to set goals that avoid something negative (“avoidance” goals) than they are to set a goal to achieve something positive they want (“approach” goals). For example, a person with depression might set an avoidance goal of losing weight just to avoid getting diabetes. A person without depression might set an approach goal to lose weight so they will have more energy. The research shows that counseling helps people with depression to set realistic goals and stay on track to reach those goals.

However, people without depression can also be helped through counseling to set goals for personal or lifestyle improvements. Counseling helps individuals identify areas where they get ‘stuck’, uncover self-limiting beliefs that are holding them back, and examine negative messages they say to themselves that get in the way of their success. This helps prepare them to then work toward achieving their goals.

A formula for goal setting often used by CBT therapists is:

·        Identify your goal

·        Choose your starting point

·        Identify the steps that must be taken to reach the goal

·        Take the first step from your starting point

A trained CBT therapist will assist you in completing each of these steps. They will help you set reachable approach goals, figure out where you are starting from and what you need to do next to meet your goals, and will help you break the goals down into smaller action steps. The therapist will help you confidently take strides toward your goals, gain insight and motivation to propel yourself forward, and will walk along side you each step of the way.

Plan to make 2021 the year that you reach the goals you need to live your best life! If you’d like some help with this, our CBT-trained therapists can give you the assistance and tools you need, so please get in touch with us.