Setting goals should be good for your mental health. Not a way to project your insecurities.
I've struggled with setting and sticking to goals in the past. And I never really stopped to think why.
This is the time of the year where we all scramble to start a new journal, to write a loooooong list of goals that we want to achieve, to impulse-buy lots of random paraphernalia for our "new hobbies", to cram into the gym (if it weren't COVID)...
But I think a lot of people, myself included, have had a wrong mindset about setting goals.
I've come to realize that the process of setting goals should be something that is good for your mental health, and not something that is used as a way to project your insecurities.
There is a massive difference between the two.
The former empowers you to become a better version of yourself, and the later just leaves you feeling debilitated from trying to be someone that you're not.
Here are a few reasons why setting goals should be good for your mental health:
It helps you turn those vague unsettling feelings into actionable things, into things that you can take control over
It helps you break down intimidating aspirations into small, bite-size things that you can take one step at a time. (Another thing that I have learnt this year is that 'repetition is KEY'.)
When setting goals, people are too often motivated by this sense of self-doubt and dissatisfaction with who they are.
But if goal-setting comes from a place of insecurities, it can be very discouraging because you feel like you're not the most 'valuable' version of yourself until you achieve those goals.
I think that goal-setting should come from a place of knowing your worth, of knowing that your mind, body, and soul deserves to be treated right.
Though this is a weird time, I hope you still find reason to smile and to be excited about the new year. :)