Posted by baseball55 on January 23, 2014, at 20:00:36
In reply to Re: improving your life - my duty to help you, posted by alexandra_k on January 23, 2014, at 13:47:23
RJ - What are you studying in school? Is it something that makes you happy, feel excited, feel competent? Feeling competent is important. If people do things that they don't like or aren't really good at, they feel unhappy and anxious and despairing.
Have you ever thought about training to be a mental health counselor? They have two year degree programs, I believe. You could work with troubled teenagers in a group home or with people who have had addiction problems. You would be able to do some of the things you want to do in a practical way.
If your counselor isn't helping you set concrete, achievable goals, then maybe you should find someone else. When I was going through a professional crisis, my therapist and p-doc did not focus on my depression and meds. They would say, okay, so what are you going to do this week to move forward? You don't want a counselor who validates your negative self-thoughts and insecurities. You want someone to push you forward.
I read something, somewhere about SMART goals. I think (but am not absolutely sure - you can google it) SMART stands for - specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, time-limited. The last is important. You don't want to set pie-in-the-sky, one-of-these-days kind of goals. What can you do today? Tomorrow? This week?
An example of a SMART goal would be - I am going to check out this week the prerequisites for some program of study that I think I will enjoy. That's all. Just check out the prerequisites. Not something too big - like, I'm going to go to school to be a doctor, but I have no idea how or when I'm going to be able to do this.
I don't know if this helps. But being your own coach is not doing you any good. We all need help and advice from others. None of us can do this on our own.
poster:baseball55
thread:1058901
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20140102/msgs/1059371.html