If you struggle to set goals, let alone reach them, you are definitely not alone. In fact, it is thought that roughly 92% of the population has found it hard to stick to goals or reach their New Year’s resolutions. The constant cycle of trying to set beneficial life or health goals, but never quite reaching them, can ultimately lead to significant discouragement, even depression. Let’s explore how counselling can help you reach your New Year’s resolutions.
Empowerment to Reach Your New Year’s Resolutions
Reaching your goals is empowering and helps you feel you are in charge of your life. When you don’t reach your goals, you feel powerless and even hopeless that your life can change for the better. But, reaching your New Year’s resolutions can be a great start towards achieving your personal and professional life goals.
How Counselling Can Help You Reach Your New Year’s Resolutions
Just as you must follow a recipe closely if you want to end up with the recipe dish, you must follow your New Year’s resolutions and goals closely to achieve your desired outcomes. Similar formulas are often used in counselling to help individuals set and reach goals that will help them change behaviours and better their lives.
Goal-setting has been shown to be a useful tool for those suffering from depression, according to a study published in the journal PLOS ONE. The study found that individuals suffering from depression had more trouble setting goals and were less likely to believe they could reach their goals. This is also true when it comes to reaching your New Year’s resolutions and goals.
The study found that those who suffered from depression had more difficulties setting goals and were also less likely to believe they would achieve those goals. The participants also tended to set avoidance goals rather than approach goals.
Avoidance Goals VS Approach Goals for Reaching Your Resolutions
An avoidance goal is one you set to avoid a negative outcome. “I want to lose weight so I don’t develop type 2 diabetes.” An approach goal, on the other hand, is one that you set to ensure a positive outcome. “I want to lose weight to have more energy.”
The study shows that therapy can help people with depression set and achieve realistic and achievable goals as well as help them stay on track mentally in pursuit of that goal.
The goal-setting formula used by many counselling therapists is as follows:
- Identify your goal
- Choose a starting point
- Identify the steps required to achieve the goal
- Take that first step and get started
A therapist can help you with each one of these steps. From ensuring you select realistic goals that are approach goals, to helping you identify where you are in relation to your goal, breaking down the goal into smaller, actionable steps, and helping you take that very first one, a counsellor or coach will be in your corner, helping you every step of the way.
Make 2021 the year you reach those goals that will help you live your best life.
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