What are goals?

Goals are plans of activities or things that you wish to achieve for yourself or with others, despite having chronic pain. Goal setting is a very useful skill to help you live with chronic pain. You can set both short-term and long-term goals – to suit your needs. Goal setting helps you focus on important activities, achieve success and increase your self-confidence.

For example, to become more physically active, you might set yourself the goal of swimming 12 lengths of the local pool twice a week over a two-month period. Or, if you want to mix with people more, you might set a goal of having a family meal out or a day shopping with friends once a month.

Goals are a helpful way of watching and recording your progress. They enable you to see and believe that change is possible in a range of activities, despite the pain. Sometimes, if you are suffering from chronic pain, activities take longer and require more planning. It doesn’t mean they are impossible. Setting goals puts you back in the driving seat and helps you regain control in many different areas of your life.

Informal and formal goals

Setting goals, when you have no pain, is a normal day-to-day activity. You may not even be aware of setting goals. For instance, you may think: ‘I’ll do this today, then I will go there . . . and then I can do that.’

Think about the goals that you frequently and informally set yourself. For example, ‘I’ll go and do some weeding in the garden’ or ‘I’ll just clean the bedroom’ or ‘I’ll paint the kitchen door’ are all goals stated in an informal way.

In chronic pain it can be helpful to set goals in a formal way in order to achieve particular activities or tasks. Planning goals formally may be new to you, and it may take a little practice until you feel confident about setting them regularly.

What are smart goals?

Your goals also need to be SMART, meaning that they should be:

•   Specific

•   Measurable

•   Achievable

•   Realistic

•   Timed

Using SMART to set your goals will give you a clear view of what you want to achieve by a set time. It will help you plan how you get there. And it will help others to see what you hope to achieve with your goals. All these factors will increase your chances of success.

WHAT DO THESE FACTORS REALLY MEAN?

Specific: Be clear about what you actually want to do. For instance, ‘Be more active’ isn’t that clear. But ‘Walk more’ tells you and others exactly what you want to do.

Measurable: Set a measurable goal. For instance ‘Walking three times (3×) per week for half an hour’ tells you and others when you have reached your goal.

Achievable: This may be tricky. Think about what you are capable of doing now. Then try to picture what you think you can achieve within your time period, for example eight weeks.

Realistic: Be honest and reasonable with yourself. For instance, climbing a 3000-foot mountain in the Lake District may not be realistic, in 3 months’ time. However, it may be a realistic long-term goal for 12 months’ time.

Timed: Decide how much time you are going to give yourself in order to achieve your goal. It may be a few weeks, which would be a short-term goal. Several months or even years would be a long-term goal.