Tips and Advice for Goal-Setting?
These days I've been feeling stuck and unaccomplished. I'm getting older and I feel like my life is going nowhere fast, and that makes me feel like a failure.
I want to move forward, but I almost feel like I don't know which direction "forward" really is. I want to eventually leave my hometown, but I don't know where I want to go. I want to get a better paying job that feels like a step up the professional ladder, but I don't know where to look. I want a better, happier life, but I don't seem to know what will actually make that happen. I really believe I could succeed in changing my life for the better if I could only pinpoint the smaller, more specific steps it will take to do it.
So my question is, do you have any strategies or tools that you've found useful for assessing these broad ambitions to identify and set specific, achievable goals?
Just want to say I can relate to so much of what you are saying.
I feel like I am in a position where I am going nowhere and feel disappointed/angry at myself that I am at this point in my life and haven't gotten farther. A lot of the reason I have been held back is because of my depression and anxiety and a lot of the reason it is difficult to see through to the other side and make progress is because of depression and anxiety!!! It is the cycle from hell.
So, I am not the best person to answer your question of course. I just wanted to let you know you are certainly not alone.
The best thing I have found when you don't know how to move forward or your broad goals seem too steep to climb is to take baby steps. Sometimes incredibly small ones until things become clearer
@BookWomanOfFahrenheit451
Thanks for your response! It's always comforting to me to know that I'm not the only one feeling the way I'm feeling. Seeing my peers moving onto different stages in their lives while I've sort of stalled out behind them has definitely been a pretty isolating experience. I think it's good for all of us who are going through similar struggles to know that we're not as alone as we may feel sometimes.
And thanks for the advice! Baby steps are still steps, and I need to remember that.
@ajennt13
I think a good place to start would be identifying what "better" means to you. What do you really care about and value? What would your perfect life look like? Then, create one or two most important overall goals, such as "move out of my hometown." From there, you can set smaller objectives to lead up to the goal that are specific, measurable, achievable, and timed. For example, you could start with the objective of "choose a town to move to." Each week, you could do a little research on towns you might like and weigh options. You could aim to make a decision within the time of one month, and you would know the objective was complete when you found a town you believed would suit your interests, values, and lifestyle. The next objective might be to search for potential jobs or houses in that town. Continuing this way, starting with small steps one at a time, eventually you would get to the point of actually moving. If you are unsure what steps are needed, talk through it with a friend! Talking through the process and brainstorming together could help you create a plan. I hope this helps!
@RedOwl5
Thanks for your advice! It's funny how I hadn't really considered smaller steps in the process. I think maybe I've been so focused on the bigger picture, the grand end goal, that I hadn't really taken the time to break down the tiniest little steps involved in getting there. Maybe, before I even get to the point of choosing potential cities, and researching, and so on, the best place to begin is to choose one or two major goals like you suggested, write them down, and break them down into each and every step it will take to achieve them, not leaving anything out. Even the smallest step will get me a little bit closer, after all.
