No matter what you want to change about your life, setting goals will help you to do it. As a senior citizen, setting goals causes you to think about exactly what you want to achieve, the problems you might encounter along the way, possible solutions to those problems and the steps you'll need to take to reach your goals. Setting realistic, achievable goals will help to keep you motivated and instill a sense of pride in your accomplishments.
Purpose of Your Goals
Before you can begin to set goals, you need to know why you're setting them. Think about the circumstances of your life that seem to be preventing you from living in a happy, healthy way, or that are making you feel more limited than your physical, mental and emotional capabilities suggest. Whether your limitations arise from financial, medical or social issues, identifying each one is the beginning of setting goals to improve your life.
Formulating Goals
Envision an ideal version of your life. Without exaggerating your capabilities or circumstances, picture the best outcome of every situation in which you find yourself from day to day. If you walk slowly and painfully, imagine that you can walk more briskly, with little or no pain. If you're often lonely, think of yourself surrounded by congenial people, enjoying their company. These ideal yet realistic versions of your circumstances are your goals.
Describing Goals
Write a thorough description of each of your goals. For example, if you want to walk while feeling less pain, describe exactly where you wish to walk and for how long. You might write something like, "My goal is to walk from my apartment to the front sidewalk every morning with less pain." If you want to live a life that's less socially isolated, you might write, "My goal is to spend time with compatible people at least once a week."
Identifying Obstacles to Achieving Goals
To be successful at reaching your goals, you need to recognize the obstacles that might make them difficult to achieve. Joint pain that prevents you from walking to the front sidewalk, or lack of transportation that keeps you from getting out and making friends, are examples of obstacles. Once you've identified the obstacles in your path, think about ways to overcome them. Will physical therapy help to ease your joint pain, allowing you to walk?
Creating Milestones
Milestones are secondary events along the path to your primary goal. For example, if you decide to attend physical therapy to walk with less pain, one of your milestones might be to gain strength in the muscles that support your joints. Another milestone might be to walk a shorter distance before you walk to the front sidewalk. If your goal is to spend time with new friends, a milestone might be joining a group of like-minded people, such as a senior citizens' center, book club or bridge club.
Setting Deadlines
If you set goals with no particular deadline in mind, you're likely to put off doing the things you need to do in order to achieve them. Even though you want to reach your goals, it's human nature to let things get in the way of doing so. If you hold yourself to a time line, listing the obstacles you need to overcome, your milestones and your final goal, you're more likely to be successful. Use a goal-setting worksheet to help keep yourself on track.
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