Feeling Depressed? Learn How Setting Goals Can Help

If you struggle with depression, then you understand the difficulty of getting up in the morning. The same monotonous routine only makes it that much harder. For those dealing with Seasonal Affective Disorder, the fall and winter months can be incredibly challenging. If you are feeling depressed, try setting goals.

A well-crafted goal and action plan can get you up in the morning, giving you something to look forward to in your day. The sense of accomplishment, as well as the journey to achieving the goal, can boost your mood and self-esteem.

How Goal Setting Helps When Feeling Depressed

Goal setting really can help when you are feeling depressed. The ability to work toward a goal will leave you with a sense of purpose and confidence. Imagine waking up in the morning, ready to tackle the next task on your list and watching your progress. Goal setting is a skill that will serve you for the rest of your life.

When you set goals, you focus on what is important to you. When you feel like you have some control over an outcome (your goal and plans to reach that goal), you feel less anxiety and depression and more confidence.

How to Set Goals

Once you learn how to set goals, you can apply the concept to any area of your life. Do you want to move further in your career, improve relationships, or lose weight? Setting goals and implementing the action steps can take you there. But it all starts with a plan.

The first step is fine-tuning your goal until it is clear, specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. This is also known as a SMART goal. You must be able to envision your goal. For example, if you want to lose weight, you focus on precisely what you want, down to the detailed steps of getting there. You narrow your focus on the steps and the progress. It is the progress that will boost your confidence and mood.

Specific What exactly is it that you want? Do you want to lose 20 pounds? 50 pounds? Do you want to write a book or learn Spanish? Be specific about your goal.

Measurable How will you measure your progress? By the scale, the number of words completed in your book each week, or by using an app? You must be able to see your progress by tracking.

Attainable Is your goal too lofty, or is it realistic? Knowing your responsibilities and schedule, can you realistically meet your goal? Losing 20 pounds in one year may be more reasonable than trying to lose 150 pounds in less than 12 months.

Relevant Your goal must align with your values and priorities. When you strive toward something outside of your values, your mental health can suffer. If your goal is to improve your relationship with your teenager, accepting a promotion that will have you traveling 280 days out of the year will misalign with that goal. Consider other areas of your life as you set your goal and create a plan.

Timely Every goal must have a deadline. For example, lose 20 pounds in 12 months, write the rough draft of a book in six months, or save $1000 in nine months.

Apply these principles to any goal to create a plan.

Break Down Larger Goal Setting Tasks into Smaller Ones

Now that you have taken the steps to create a clear and concise goal, you must break your goal down into daily, weekly, and monthly tasks and reassess regularly. This is the progression that will carry you through.

For example, if your goal is to lose twenty pounds over the next twelve months, how will you track your progress? What steps will you take daily, weekly, and monthly? You could focus on a daily workout, follow a specific food plan, and record your workouts and track your food intake daily. You could attend a weekly cardio session with a friend and record your measurements monthly.

If your goal is to write a novel in six months, you could determine how many words you would need to complete each month, and then break that down into weekly and daily writing goals. You could record your word count on a desk calendar or use fun stickers for every day you write. Reward yourself for keeping a streak going by celebrating milestones (examples: 25,000 words written on a novel or five pounds lost).

Consider keeping a journal of your progress, noting how you feel as you accomplish your milestones. You may notice that feeling depressed seems to happen less often when you are working on your goals.

Christian counseling in Allen, Texas can help with depression

You don’t have to struggle with feeling depressed alone. A counselor in Allen, Texas can help you manage symptoms and get back to feeling more like yourself.

Contact our office today at Texas Christian Counseling, Allen, to schedule a session with a Christian counselor in Allen, Texas who will assess your symptoms, create a care plan, and meld evidence-based psychology with faith-based principles to help you draw closer to God while mending your mental health. Give us a call today to get started.