Setting Goals for our Healing and Recovery

Creating goals for ourselves can be a very helpful tool in our recovery process. We often are so consumed with our addictive thoughts and behaviors that we don’t know how to go about planning for recovery or seeking help. Thinking of the process in terms of setting and achieving goals can be therapeutic and can help us motivate ourselves to take the steps to get better.

Set small, manageable goals. The idea is to prevent getting overwhelmed by breaking things down into actionable steps. We don’t want to try to do everything at once, that can be intimidating and can cause us to give up before we even try, or to keep procrastinating on our recovery.

Your end goal might be to stay sober or abstinent, and more generally, to achieve inner peace. What does that feel and look like for you? What healthier behaviors would you adopt, such as regular exercise and meditation? What things and people would you avoid, aside from your drug of choice? Start thinking about how you can implement changes to both your routine and your mentality.

Here are some ideas for goals you can try for yourself.

Goals:

1. To spend time with the people in my life who want to help me and who encourage my recovery, rather than those who enable or contribute to my addictive behaviors.
2. To find new activities I enjoy, that feed my soul and creativity, that make me happy, that don’t include using my drugs of choice or engaging in my addictive behaviors.
3. To make time for meditation, prayer or other form of spiritual practice.
4. To create space between myself and my unhealthy relationships, in order to focus on my healing.
5. To start a day count for every day I stay away from my drug of choice, unhealthy behavior, or toxic relationship.
6. To create affirmations around my healing and recovery that I can write, repeat out loud, record and then listen to, and meditate with. “I am at peace within myself. I am strong enough to do what’s best for myself.”

7a. Find a local meeting or support group and get more information on it.

7b. Attend a meeting.

7c. Choose a sponsor.

7d. Pick a meeting schedule and stick to it.

Thinking about the whole recovery process can be daunting and scary, but when we break it down into small steps that we can take for ourselves every day, the process can be easier to manage. As we take the steps, our faith in our ability to heal grows, and we’re on our way.

The community at Enlightened Solutions has years of experience helping people in recovery and can help you. Call (833) 801-LIVE.