Your guide to helping you set your sober goals and succeed.
Goal setting is crucial for personal and professional growth, as well as for achieving success in various aspects of life – including becoming sober. Setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals provides several important benefits:
Tip #1 - Clarity of Vision
Goals help you identify what you want to achieve and provide a clear direction. They act as a roadmap, guiding your actions and decisions, which minimizes distractions and ensures focus on the most important tasks.
If you are starting out on your sober journey – set yourself a target: a week, or 14 days. Maybe you could start with a target of the month of August?
Tip #2 - Motivation and Commitment
Setting goals creates a sense of purpose and motivation. When you have a clear target to aim for, you are more likely to stay committed and work diligently to achieve it, even in the face of challenges.
"Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” —Tony Robbins
Tip #3 - Measurable Progress
Goals enable you to track your progress. This allows you to measure how far you have come and how close you are to achieving your objectives. Seeing tangible progress can boost your confidence and encourage you to keep going.
A good way to keep track of your progress is with a sobriety app – I am sober is a great free app.
Tip #4 - Time Management
By setting deadlines for your goals, you develop time management skills. This helps you prioritize tasks and allocate your time and resources efficiently, increasing productivity and reducing procrastination.
Try setting yourself tasks with your goal to keep yourself busy. You could aim to read for an hour a day too or increase your exercise. Redecorate? Try a new skill. You could get to the end of your target with a brand new favourite activity.
Tip #5 - Accountability
Having specific goals makes you accountable for your actions. You become responsible for achieving what you set out to do, which fosters discipline and consistency in your efforts.
At Sober Essex we have lots of opportunities to connect with members through meet-ups, small support groups and via social media on our Facebook and Instagram pages. There is always someone there when you reach out.
Tip #6 - Decision Making
Goals provide a framework for making decisions. When faced with choices, you can assess which option aligns best with your objectives, making decision-making more straightforward.
To help with your sober journey – you can support the decision-making process with journaling. Writing things down enables you to visualise and take ownership of your decisions. Also, it helps to review your thoughts as you progress with your goal.
Tip #7 - Personal Growth
The process of setting and pursuing goals challenges you to step out of your comfort zone and learn new skills. It encourages continuous self-improvement and growth.
Paddleboarding? Salsa dancing? Couch to 5K? Marathon training? Gardening? Yoga? These are all new skills that our members have tried and loved. What could you try?
Tip #8 - Focus on Priorities
With clearly defined goals, you can focus on what truly matters to you. This prevents you from getting side tracked by less important activities and ensures that your efforts are directed towards achieving meaningful outcomes.
Write down your whys. What is important to you? Why do you want to change? Maybe it is your health. Perhaps your family? Is it that you want to live until you are 100?
Tip #9 - Happiness and Fulfilment
Achieving your goals brings a sense of accomplishment and fulfilment. It boosts self-esteem and overall well-being, enhancing your happiness and life satisfaction.
Play it forward and think about how amazing you will feel to reach your target sobriety goal. You can then think about extending your goal. All of our members started with a target – it could be 30 days, 90 then 100 days. If you can be sober for 100 days….could you make 6 months? A year?
Remember that goal setting should be a dynamic process
As circumstances change, you may need to adjust your goals or set new ones. Regularly reviewing and refining your objectives ensures that you stay on track and continue progressing towards your desired outcomes.
Journaling will help you to review your goals, connection will help to support your goal and Sober Essex will give you all of the tools that you need to reach your targets.
We achieve more, together.
