How to Set and Crush Your Goals With Way Less Stress

Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsThe Role of Goals and Stress ReliefThe Role of Goals in Personal HappinessWhat Goals Should I Set?How to Maintain Goals

Table of ContentsView All

View All

Table of Contents

The Role of Goals and Stress Relief

The Role of Goals in Personal Happiness

What Goals Should I Set?

How to Maintain Goals

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Goals can be stressful. They can create excessive pressure and make us feel bad when we don’t achieve the ones we’ve set. This is particularly true if goals are unrealistically high or we don’t have a workable plan in place.

This is why many people forgo settingNew Year’s resolutionsentirely. It’s difficult to keep going after our goals if we keep missing the mark each year. It’s also much harder to reach our goals when we don’t know the best way to go about setting them and working toward them.

Press Play for Advice On Setting Goals

At a GlanceGoals matter. Setting the right goals, having aplanto reach those goals, and following through on what is required to reach or maintain those goals may help us feel greater happiness and fulfillment while reducing stress levels. By examining our thoughts and stressors, minimizing our external stressors, taking small concrete steps, and rewarding ourselves along the way, we are ina better position to reach our goals without overwhelming ourselves.

At a Glance

Goals matter. Setting the right goals, having aplanto reach those goals, and following through on what is required to reach or maintain those goals may help us feel greater happiness and fulfillment while reducing stress levels. By examining our thoughts and stressors, minimizing our external stressors, taking small concrete steps, and rewarding ourselves along the way, we are ina better position to reach our goals without overwhelming ourselves.

What we experience as ‘stress’ is really an interaction of events that happen in our lives, our thoughts, and resulting emotional reactions to those events.

The way weperceive our stressorsand our emotional responses to those perceptions are what trigger the body’sstress response. This results in the experience of stress.

Because of this, a significant goal of stress management focuses on examining our thoughts about our stressors. By doing this, we can then change our feelings and our stress responses. Another goal of stress management involves minimizing the stressors we experience in a typical day. Both goals are important and both require some forethought.

Another area of life that’s closely linked with stress and stress management is personalhappinessand fulfillment. The growing field ofpositive psychologyexamines what factors contribute to happiness andresilience(rather than just studying unhappiness and pathology).

This line of research has identified several goals that, if met, can lead to greater overall happiness, fulfillment, and resilience to stress. So, rather than only setting goals that minimize or manage stress, setting goals that lead to the opposite of stress can also be an effective route to a less-stressed lifestyle.

So, how do we decide what kind of goals will be most beneficial for us? It’s often a matter of looking at what we need or want to accomplish.

No matter what type of goals we are setting, they should provide some degree of stress relief. It’s a good idea to become aware of which goals will lead to both outcomes. Below are some different categories of goals we may set.

Possible Goals to SetHappinessManaging stressReducing stressorsResilienceStress-relieving habits

Possible Goals to Set

HappinessManaging stressReducing stressorsResilienceStress-relieving habits

Some goals are short-term, such as acing a test, finishing a project at work, or finding a great relationship. However, many goals that will help with stress management, happiness, and resilience tend to be ongoing, long-term goals such asregular exercise, maintaining relationships, and practicing meditation on an ongoing basis.

Longer-term goals can be somewhat more challenging. However, these goals are often rewarding to maintain and are ultimately what can lead to a better life experience.

There are a few tricks to maintaining goals or adopting healthy habits. Some things that you can do that will help:

Maintaining goals can be a little more involved than that, but this is the basic process. Most people abandon goals because they set their goals too high (or the wrong goals for their lifestyle), try to do too much in the beginning, don’t congratulate themselves for making progress toward their goals along the way, and give up if they have a slip.

What This Means For YouReaching goals in a realistic way—even if it takes a little longer—can mean the difference between sticking to goals and reaching goal after goal, and giving up early, abandoning goals altogether. Chip away at your goals each week or month and celebrate every small win—you deserve it!

What This Means For You

Reaching goals in a realistic way—even if it takes a little longer—can mean the difference between sticking to goals and reaching goal after goal, and giving up early, abandoning goals altogether. Chip away at your goals each week or month and celebrate every small win—you deserve it!

How to Set SMART Goals

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