–   JANUARY 2022   –

How to set goals that excite you

If you’re currently working with a physiotherapist, or you have done in the past, you’ll know that setting goals is a key part of the process. Your physio will ask you what you want to achieve and help create a plan that will get you to your desired outcome. That process sounds straightforward but there can be many conflicting emotions that go with goal setting that often don’t get discussed.

Here are some of the more challenging emotions that can come up when setting new goals:

• Resentment that the goal is needed
• Fear of failure
• Guilt for not already being able to do this
• Disappointment if you’ve previously attained a goal, then due to health deterioration, you have to work on it again
• Frustration that it is not known how long it might take to reach a physio goal as bodies heal and strengthen at different rates

Feeling any of these emotions at some point along the journey to reaching your goal is completely normal. Please be kind to yourself and acknowledge how well you are doing along the way.

So how do you set a goal you can get excited about as your focus? The key to this is identifying how you want to feel; not focusing on how you currently feel about not being able to do it yet. 

At Active Edge Physio, we always keep an open, honest dialogue with the people we support and we genuinely want to see them thriving. There is no point having a goal that doesn’t excite you, as it will be incredibly hard to maintain motivation and enthusiasm to keep working towards it. There are practical goals to set in terms of the physical things you want to accomplish but rather than focusing solely on that physical outcome, we will also encourage you to consider how it will feel to be able to accomplish that physical goal. What will it mean to you in terms of how you move around your house? What will become easier for you?

We recommend making goals meaningful and keeping them simple. Sharing a goal with a loved one will help you stay accountable and a key part of success is to ask for help when you need it. Breaking a bigger goal down into small, manageable steps and celebrating each smaller step once it is attained.