Effective Goals in Recovery

Twice a week I encourage and coach each client to participate fully in an exercise of learning and putting into practice the technology of well-formed outcome. Participating in the goal setting exercises allows for clients to learn the technology of setting well formed goals and also to begin learning about the internal constraints and barriers that stop them from achieving their goals.
On Monday afternoon I enroll the clients into setting a goal that they will complete or accomplish by Friday morning. The coaching is to make the goal simple and attainable. On Friday morning I conduct another session to process their progress towards completing their chosen goal. The processing of what stops them or how they achieved their goal can be very powerful. Powerful breakthroughs can appear for clients in this process. On Monday afternoon the client’s progress from the weekend is processed and the goal setting exercise starts over again. The repetition of this exercise will allow the client to utilize the technology of setting effective, well formed goals in his or her recovery program and also learn about how he she sabotages himself in the process.

The goal setting exercise is initially about answering three questions:

1. What goal I am committed to achieving by Friday morning?

2. What I will need to do everyday to achieve my chosen recovery goal by Friday.

Question one is about the planning stage. The planning stage is about creating a goal or a well-formed outcome, that which a person will go about achieving. The conversation about well-formed outcome is primarily from the field of Neuro Linguistic Programming. Many people do not achieve the goals that they set for themselves because they are not well formed.

The seven criteria for setting effective goals are taught as apart of the sessions that I conduct. There are seven criteria for creating a well-formed outcome:

1. Is your chosen goal specific?

2. Is your goal within your personal control?

3. Do you have with it takes to achieve your goal?

4. How will you know when you have achieved your goal?

5. Is your goal expressed positively?

6. Is your goal at the right level?

7. What else in your life might be affected by your goal? Question Three is about accountability.

The client is given the opportunity to choose another client to hold them accountable for their chosen goal. It will be the responsibility of the individual chosen to check with the client everyday to see if the client is doing what he or she has said they would do to achieve their goal.

The entire exercise process gives a client the opportunity to repeatedly practice creating and achieving a particular goal or well formed outcome and will assist them in their recovery process. If the goal is recovery oriented it will be vital that the individual create a specific goal in alignment with being well formed.