what goals have you set recently?

Chronic pain can make it easy to feel overwhelmed, reduce our activity levels, and become isolated.  Goals help restore a sense of order, build self-efficacy and sense of control, improve mood, and provide direction by helping with planning daily activities.
 
One of the tools we learned at the Mayo Clinic Pain Rehabilitation Center was goal setting to help us plan our days and keep us on track. We set goals each day. They didn't have to be massive, but they had to be SMART - specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
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• Specific – What do you want to do?  What action will you take?
• Measurable – How will you track progress and know when you’ve reached the finish line.
• Achievable – Is it something you can do? Do you have the necessary skills and resources?
• Relevant – Why is it important to you?
• Time-bound – When do you want to accomplish it?

Some SMART goal examples:

• Increase my step count by end of week to 5,000 steps a day.
• Do deep breathing for three minutes three times each day for next week.
• Read three articles about cognitive behavioral therapy by end of the week.
• Plan a social event to visit in-person with friends and family this week.
• Lose 4 to 8 pounds of weight in the next 30 days.
• Volunteer 10 hours a week at the community center for the next month.

 
Did you notice none of the goal examples included pain reduction?
Our focus should be on reducing stress, improving our quality of life and increasing functional ability and activity, not pain reduction. Focusing on pain reduction is an easy trap to fall into - leading to frustration and depression.  Just as the homepage of my website says - we can live well, despite the pain.