The Benefits of Setting Goals During Recovery

Setting realistic and structured goals during recovery is a great way to maintain your sobriety. Goals create a path paved with smaller and larger milestones to work toward. They offer you a way to remain focused and create opportunities to celebrate successes. Meaningful goals can provide positive reinforcement for your wellness journey.

Goal Setting and Mental Wellness

Goal planning is an essential part of mental health recovery. In a 2014 study, “Exploring goal planning in mental health service delivery: a systematic review protocol,” goal planning is defined as a process that “identifies priorities for treatment through discussion and negotiation between service users and health practitioners.” Together, patient and provider determine the most helpful path forward and create a set of goals that support recovery.

Goals in Addiction Recovery

Goals are used the same way in addiction recovery. By establishing and achieving goals, your progress becomes measurable. This means you can qualitatively assess how far you've come from these pre-established points in your recovery process. Additionally, these goals can be renegotiated throughout your care. Further, according to the study “Goal setting and monitoring with alcohol and other drug use disorders,” your goals are unique to your needs as well as flexible to accommodate life changes. Progress remains attainable even in the case of setbacks.

These goals may focus on several areas, including the following:

• Sobriety or safely decreasing substance use under medical supervision
• Identifying your personal triggers, recognizing high-risk environments, and practicing healthy coping skills
• Supporting your fundamental well-being, such as keeping a regular sleep schedule, eating balanced meals, and exercising
• Attending counseling, managing co-occurring mental health conditions, and practicing daily mindfulness
• Reconnecting with positive family, establishing boundaries with unsupportive peers, or engaging in weekly support groups
• Updating your resume, finding steady work, pursuing education, or managing your finances

When Goals Don't Work

There is more to setting a goal than saying you want to do something. Goals require commitment and resources, including your time and energy. In early sobriety, these can be scarce. However, with support from community or an addiction treatment facility like Lantana Recovery, you can learn to set goals that are achievable as well as how to track your progress.

As with all change, discomfort is part of the process. Reaching for a new normal requires work, and work can be frustrating. Determining your limits before setting goals is integral to the process, which is why having a mental health professional or addictions counselor on board can greatly ease this process.

Setting Goals for Addiction Recovery

You may begin recovery with the goal of sobriety, but even that is a goal that can be fine-tuned. When setting goals, dial them in by making them SMART. This well-known acronym stands for:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Realistic
• Time-bound

Breaking each category down, you are working to create goals that are clear and well-defined, allow you to track your progress, are goals you are willing and able to commit to, are manageable/doable given your current resources and energy, and have deadlines or timeframes for completion.

An example is taking the goal to “stop drinking" and developing it by specifying how and when you will achieve sobriety: "I will complete a 7-day detox with medical supervision and enroll in an outpatient program by the end of this month."

Tracking Your Goals

The profound positive impact of goals is noting their achievement. Consider keeping a journal or logging your goals in a sobriety app so that you can celebrate as soon as they are achieved. Having a record of where you've been and how far you've come will empower you to set future goals to continue elevating your personal wellness.

Finding the Support You Deserve

Remember that the best goals are achievable and specific. In order to establish SMART goals, seek out support from professionals like our team at Lantana Recovery. We are equipped to assess your emotional and physical needs related to substance abuse and help you map out the best path forward.

Lantana Recovery offers numerous therapeutic options. These include individual therapy, group therapy, family therapy, holistic modalities, and other evidence-based treatments. With your providers, you will identify what goals are most meaningful to you and then build a path to achieve them.

From inpatient or outpatient detox to the option of sober living, Lantana does it all. We offer one front door. Every level of care. You start wherever you are. A 10- to 15-minute clinical pre-assessment based on American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) criteria determines the right level of care for you, so you're never guessing at what you need.

Along the way, you will discover new interests through art therapy, and learn to regulate your body and mind through somatic therapy. Lantana offers varied care, and should we discover we aren't the right fit, we provide a concierge continuum of care to connect you with the facility or resources you need for your recovery.

Setting goals is a meaningful way to track progress during addiction recovery. The positive feedback when goals are achieved serves to reinforce the positivity associated with maintaining sobriety. However, goals are not always easy to set in a way that is manageable. Using SMART guidelines, you can learn to set goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. Dialing in on what you are able to achieve, when, and how makes your goals more accessible. This integral part of addiction recovery planning is completed with the support of your wellness team. Together with your providers, you will create a manageable set of goals for your recovery. Contact Lantana Recovery to get started today at (866) 997-2870!