The
following press release is provided free for reprint to our media
friends, as long as the article is reprinted in its entirety and
includes the final footnote paragraph. For additional information,
contact Lindsay Dutro at
805-466-5917 or email at publicity@impactpublishers.com.
Lofty
Goals: Too Much of a Good Thing?
Learn
to Set Healthy Goals
Goal
setting is an important, and even an essential, part of life. Our main
goal is to survive and to be happy in various ways, including personal
achievement, mental health, and good relations with other people. When
we don’t seem to have goals, we usually do have them in our underlying
desires, but we sometimes insist that we absolutely
must achieve them and achieve them remarkably well. Our demand that
we have to achieve our goals
then leads to anxiety in case we don’t accomplish them remarkably
well. Consequently, we make achieving them too “dangerous,” and
often cop out and make ourselves goal-less.
If
we give up our grandiose demands
that our goals must be
achieved, but still keep our strong desire
to attain them, we usually have several possible goals – and can
choose to work on those we prefer over our other goals. Many goals –
such as saving money and spending it on other goals – are
contradictory. Too bad! – but we can’t have everything. So if we
keep our goals and desires, but refuse to make them absolute necessities, we can work things out, make compromises, and
achieve many of the things we want much – but hardly all – of the
time.
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Adapted
from Ask Albert Ellis: Straight
Answers and Sound Advice from America’s Best-Known Psychologist,
by Dr. Albert Ellis. Available
at online and local bookstores or directly from Impact Publishers, Inc.,
PO Box 6016, Atascadero, CA 93423, www.bibliotherapy.com
or phone
1-800-246-7228.
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