Lived Experience Forum

[Baboo]

Hi every one,

Im curious to learn about other peoples goals and how they take steps in reaching them.

I have two- but they feel to me like they are some what conflicting. One is to "learn how" to save money and one day buy a small block out bush to build on.

My other goal is to let myself feel content/ happy in life no matter where i live or what situation i may be in at the time.

I write my self lots of lists or letters to myself for motivation- and let myself take tiny steps at a time along the way- i try not to rush myself

What do other people do to help them selves reach their goals?

[kato]

I currently have a couple of goals one is to get treatment to help me manage my health. The second ia to get treatment to help me become a more involved member of my family, to be there for my wife and son. They are basically the same as each other but significant difference to me. I hope to achieve this by getting the right assistance and to keep seeking the combination of meds and therapies to help manage my health.

[kenny66]

Mine is to get to a point where I am spending more time well than unwell. I would also like to get to a point where I am doing supportive things for other people rather than the way it is now where people are always doing things to support me. I would also  like to be seen for what I am in total and not only the part that is schizophrenia. I am trying to achieve these things by putting the interests of other people first so that I feel I am contributing to the wellbeing of others.

[chookmojo]

I have included a short term, goal, a mid term goal and a long term goal.

My main Mid term goal at the moment is to improve my physical health (while maintaining my currently quite good level of mental health) as I had some test results from the doctor recently that were a bit sobering.

The main thing I am being advised to do is 'lose weight' - however this has been a real struggle for me for many years as I developed quite bad eating disorders in my teens, running the gamut from anorexia to bulimia and in my 20s  I developed BED and gained LOT of weight while stopping my self harming behaviours. Since then I have had good spells where my weight plataeus, or drops, and bad spells where it shoots up again.

Dieting/weighing/measuring/counting cal's are all really triggering things for me and can quickly derail my mental health, which in turn derails the rest of my life, including my physical heath, something it is VERY difficult to get people to understand. They really keep on pushing 'but you are too fat to be healthy!!' while failing to grasp that the process of losing weight can, if not handle carefully, result in me becoming actually quite a lot MORE unhealthy. 

Instead of ficusing on losing weight I have to work on building UP exercise (Couch to 5 k is my current  quest and I was doing great before being struck down with this horrible Flu that is going around, can't wait to get back to it!). I have a pedometer and aim for a minimum of 10K steps per day. I like body metric tracking and like to log my activity/steps/active heart rate/b-pressure/recovery heart rate and so on. These are metrics I can safely track without 'triggering' me, and help to keep me motivated.

I also listen to hypnotic/NLP tracks that support healthier eating habits, such as paying attention to hunger and satiety cues, eating mindfully, and responding to strong emotions in more appropriate/useful ways than by self medicatng with food.

I am a LOOOOONG way off the final result, but by focussing on developing/adding in good supportive behaviours  (such as activity levels) I can see on any given day that I have achieved a small aspect of what I am aiming for.

My longest term goal is to get the mortgage paid off. This has been an EXPENSIVE year with many unanticipated vet bills and other expenses and essentially we lost 2 years worth of progress. Ooof. That was rough. So now I am all about trying to squeeze the most out of a dollar and trying to get some momentum back on that score.

Budgeting is all very well but sticking to it is a challenge! I have a tin that I put all of my loose change in, and I am bumping that up to include $5 notes too.... that way I seldom have cash handy to impulse spend.

Well officially I have another 27.5 years on this mortgage....

Short term goal in the next couple of weeks I am trying to build some additional garden beds in my back yard. I love gardening and am slowly pulling together a bit of an urban homestead - my goal is to have fruit trees, berries and olives in addition to my herb garden and vegie beds. I'm sort of recreating in miniature my grandfather's farm where I spent my happiest days of childhood, ad alas long since sold away.

I need to measure the area, decide on how high I want the beds (one sleeper or two?), order the lengths of timber, buy some screws/brackets and get to building. Hopefully it will MOSTLY involve drilling holes and drilling in screws which I can manage. Once they are built I need to order in soil/compost and mulch and do a LOT of shovelling...... (Should help with my Mid term goal above at least!)

Measuring is the first step and one I have been putting off forever. I have no idea why it seems like so much hassle, but it does. If I could use a power saw I could just eyeball it and cut the wood to the right length, but as it is I need to order all the different lengths I need precut.

I am probably only a month away from having thse beds built and at least partly planted out.

[Alessandra1992]

Hmmm Life Goal...go back to Europe, maybe explore the Americas and USA and go on a cruise..

Life ambition..hmmm can I get back to you on that one Baboo..

Close to achieving goals...planning to go to Italy in 2 years and maybe the UK as well. To do this means saving up annual leave, no mean feat when you're kids have school hols in summer, when really, far more enjoyable to go to Europe in our winter...working on figuring out timing for that...

Still haven't renewed my passport and the kids haven't ever had one yet so that might be one of the steps I take next year to get the applications sent it😃😄

[Neb]

Golly, there's a thought. I have spent most of my adulthood plumbing the depths of mental illness, and my what murky depths they have been. I have been blessed in finally being in contact with a health professional who actually got the ball rolling. I am reasonably stable, my DID is cobbled together, and I can manage the occasional depressive episodes. I moved across the ditch, and live in a rural town, where I own my little house. I have never been so happy or content with my life. Yes, I would like some things which I have had to relinquish , but contentment is truely a mighty gift.

[chookmojo]

.....And I am chuffed to say that my garden beds are now built. I was very proud of myself as this is the first time I have built my own garden beds without assistance. Dirt is coming on Friday so I have a lot of shoveling to do over the weekend and planting time is just around the corner.

[Alessandra1992]

What are you going to plant chookmojo? Down here in Vic gardeners always say tomato seedlings plant first crop week of Melbourne cup..are you growing some herbs as well..u have been thinking this is the year for cherry tomatoes and fresh basil..so I had better get some pits organised!!

[hopeful14]

my short term goals is to learn about what I've got (and hopefully get diagnosed) and learn techniques to cope. also share said techniques with my husband.

longer term goals are to live with depression with longer times between episodes. and budgeting. I need to come to terms with this.

[Baboo]

Reading all these now, and thinking about them all. My opinion is short term achievable goals are the most important.

Gets the motivation ball rolling- helps me with confidence too.

When i make some thing up thats really big and out there as a goal- i seem to make myself too disappointed or perhaps self critical if i cant achieve it right away.

Heres my short term goal for the month; To make myself exercise for at least half an hour every day, even if its raining out side, i have stares and a walking machine i can use. No excuses for me 🙂