Goal Setting with Depression
Goal Setting with Depression (Part 1)
For all people, setting and achieving goals can be an important way to build self-esteem. We have a sense of direction and empowerment when we know we are progressing toward goals that are important to us or that will make our lives better. But, when you are depressed the process of setting and achieving goals can be difficult. In these next two blog posts, I will discuss the importance of continuing to set goals when you are depressed, the challenges that setting goals when depressed poses and tips for overcoming these challenges.
The traditional advice on goal setting generally encourages people to start with big picture, long-term goals and then break them down into smaller attainable tasks to be accomplished along the way to achieving the larger goal. Asking yourself, “Where am I going? What do I want in the long term?” can be motivating, but also challenging if your depression makes it difficult to think about your future in an optimistic or hopeful way. It can be hard to find an effective balance between long-term and short-term, especially when you are depressed. Knowing that this may be a challenge for you, can help you understand what is happening and can make you less vulnerable to becoming overwhelmed and giving up on trying to set goals at all. If thinking about the long-term, big picture is motivating for you, then use it. But if you can’t think about the long term on any given day, just let yourself focus on small tasks and small achievements that you can accomplish today and build from there.
Whether you start with the end in mind, or you start with moving forward from where you are in this moment, the first important step is to identify a small and manageable task – something you can get done in a brief time, maybe even in one sitting that you can focus on today. As you work on these small tasks each day, your focus and consistency will build over time leading obtaining to a larger scale goal. When you only focus on the big goal, there is a tendency to become overwhelmed and not to make progress, small steps are less overwhelming and lead to progress overtime that would not have been accomplished if you only focused on the big overwhelming goal.
Make a daily list with just one or two small tasks on it, focus on what is to be addressed in this moment. Keep away from the distraction of feeling too overwhelmed for the end goal. It is also important to acknowledge your daily progress. This can be especially difficult for depressed people, as the thinking that accompanies depression tends to be harsh, self-critical and therefore minimizing of positive accomplishments as “too small” or insignificant. Know that these thinking patterns are only part of your depression symptoms, and work to overcome this negative thinking, give yourself small rewards to reinforce small accomplishments and keep up motivation and increase a sense of pride – you are heading in the right direction and have made progress by working today.
Setting goals, writing them down and working consistently on them has been found to increae self-esteem, and financial/life success. Many people find that using the SMART acronym when working to create goals is helpful. When you are working on setting your goal, before you write it down, make sure it is “SMART.” There are multiple SMART systems – but one that I find effective for depressed clients is listed below.
Try to frame the goals that you create to fit each letter in SMART:
S- Specific
Depressed people tend to set vague goals, making it difficult to know what steps to take to achieve them. When you set a specific goal, you have focus and your know precisely when you can give yourself credit for accomplishing it.
M- Meaningful
It is most important to set goals that are meaningful to you, not to other people. Depressed people tend to feel burdened by other people priorities and demands. You will be more movitated to work toward a goal that is truly meaningful for you.
A- Attainable / Action-oriented
The A pulls double duty, reminding you to set small goals at first that are realistic for you to attain. Also, the goals need to be action oritented. What can you do today to make your life better. It is important not to get stuck in wishing things would change around you and thinking that is a goal. Goals are small or large things that you are realistically achive through your own actions.
R- Rewards
In order to stay motivated to set and work toward attaining goals when you are depressed, you need to give your self rewards for progress. This can be so difficult for depressed people who tend to have high expectations for themselves and to minimize the accomplishements they have made. Push yourself to tie working on goals to things that you enjoy – this will make it more likely that your will channel your energy into your task in order to get the reward and that you will acknowledge the work that you have accmplihsed along the way.
T- Time-bound
When you set a goal, you must have a specific time frame in mind. Set an expectation for yourself, like “I’ll study for 45 minutes before lunch today.” Time bound goals are more motivating because you know what you need to do and when, rather than thinking “I’ll get to it sometime.” Time-bound goals also let you know when you are done for the day, so that you can feel a sense of accomplishment and give yourself permission to relax until the next day.
Goals setting and attainment is important for all of us. It can be especially challenging but also especially important for people working through a period of depression. I hope that this information helps you begin to think about goal setting differently. Next time, I will share some more specific tips that can be especially helpful for goal setting with depression.
