What Impact Does Goal Setting Actually Have On Your Mental Health?
For as long as I can remember, I dreamt of living an entrepreneurial life. As a kid, I would create little business ventures, scheming ways to make money and dreaming of the millions I would someday make. Needless to say, I can check off that goal as a big old fail. But as that dream faded into the sunset and reality and routine set in, I became depressed, unmotivated, and anxious about what the future would hold. I did just enough each day to make it through. I was convinced that setting such a big goal would motivate me and ensure success. But the further that goal was from reality, the more depressed I became and, consequently, the less I felt confident and motivated to set new goals.
Dumb Luck Or Bad Luck?
It should come as no surprise that the best means of making significant progress in our lives is through the process of goal setting. Perhaps you have even learned the value and power of setting incredibly audacious goals. But what happens when your goals aren’t met? What happens when you fail, but others around you experience life-changing success? Was it the wrong goal or the wrong time? Maybe you lack the skills needed? Perhaps it’s just dumb luck or bad luck.
The truth is, while goal setting is a critical and vital process for achieving the things we really want in life, most of us approach it wrong. We are told—even as children—to have big dreams, but rarely are we given a helpful approach to making such big dreams a reality. The result is often a depressed mental state that, if not managed, can propel you down a slippery slope of mental struggles.
Big goals, significant life changes, and big dreams can paralyze us into inactivity because our minds aren’t prepared to handle such a change—especially if our plans require a new habit, new routine, or new way of thinking about the world. You can’t just flip a switch and suddenly think differently. We must slowly engage in a routine of mind management to build the right mental muscle to produce the change we desire.
What does this look like practically? It means breaking your big goal into much smaller bite-size, easily digestible goals that produce a constant stream of results, creating a motivational path to the larger goal.
A Brain Full of Trees
Think of your brain like a forest. Beautifully intricate and full of color and wonder. In that forest, you have, over the years, created paths, removed obstacles, and even put up some directional signage for easy travel. These trails provide a clear and easy path to almost anywhere in the woods. The more you use them, the more worn it becomes, making them the easiest means of getting from one side of the forest to the other. This is precisely how the neurological pathways in our brains work. Our minds want to find the easiest, least resistant path possible.
But if my goal is to get to a better place in the forest that requires a new path, I can’t just jump off the beaten path and venture out into the unknown. There are far too many obstacles. I would have to bring some tools and slowly carve out the path I wanted a little bit at a time. The same is true when it comes to our goals. Every smaller goal is brush cut back, a tree removed, and a path that begins to take shape.
Mind Management
Successful goal-setting can lead to better mental health. But only if we approach it correctly. It requires mind management—the practice of coordinating the activities in your mind. It’s building awareness that we are literally carving a new path in a dense forest—a little bit at a time. And it’s the ability to give ourselves a little bit of grace and compassion because we recognize the task is difficult and will take time.
