How to Overcome Anxiety By Setting Goals for the New Year

Anxiety can often be attributed to feeling out of control. If you are a Type-A personality, like things organized, and control much of what is around you, then having your world turned upside down can bring on severe anxiety and panic attacks.

Although you cannot control every aspect of your life and must remember that God has much better plans for you than you could have ever had, setting goals and finding ways to make them happen can open doors and give you a sense of control. A New Year does not have to feel like all the past years – everyone else is accomplishing goals while you are struggling with overwhelming anxiety.

Learning how to overcome anxiety using goal-setting principles can serve you for the rest of your life.

New Year Anxiety

For some people, starting a New Year brings out more anxiety. They have tried to tackle big goals only to get overwhelmed and quit, or they press on while anxiety gets the better of them with full-blown panic attacks, which slow them down and result in fear.

You can manage anxiety by giving yourself a sense of control over your future and feelings of accomplishment. You may have never considered how to overcome anxiety by tackling it head-on through goal-setting principles, but having a plan boosts confidence, and watching yourself accomplish goals will raise your self-esteem.

Let’s make this your best year yet.

Why Setting Goals Can Help Anxiety

There is a difference between setting a resolution and creating goals and a plan. A resolution is a statement. For example, “This year, I am not going to eat a bite of sugar.” Although noble and health-conscious, this resolution will probably set you up for failure. It is specific, but if you have been eating added sugars your whole life, avoiding them 100% from day one will probably not happen.

You end up eating sugar on the second day and feeling like a failure. Your blood pressure and heart rate skyrocket because your body is having issues with insulin from years of sugar consumption. You become fearful for your health and develop chronic anxiety. Perhaps you go one step further and engage in disordered eating behaviors to control your eating, which only perpetuates your anxiety.

Do you have a similar experience? Maybe not with sugar, but with something you have desperately tried to do or change as a resolution?

Setting goals and creating a plan is more of a blueprint of what you envision for your life. When you pray, ask God to give you a yearning for what He wants for your life. Where do you feel led? What do you see yourself doing? Setting goals and breaking them down into manageable tasks with room to pivot will help you accomplish these goals and lower your anxiety levels.

How to Overcome Anxiety by Creating Goals

Learning how to overcome anxiety by creating and working on goals starts with creating a goal list. Think about the areas of your life. The following are a few examples of critical areas to consider:

• Faith
• Health
• Family
• Career
• Finances
• Hobbies
• Relationships
• Entertainment
• Personal development
• Home

These areas combined make a balanced life. If you focus too much on one area, such as career/work, other critical areas like family and home may suffer. Anxiety can worsen when your life feels out of balance.

List at least ten goals you would love to see happen this year. Try to choose at least one in each of the areas that are vital to you.

Next, narrow down your list to the top three goals. If you accomplished these goals, could they make the other goals possible? Out of these three goals, is there one or two that would really push things along? Focus on this goal initially.

How you write your goals will set you up for success. In our example above about sugar consumption, how could we have written that goal to make it achievable?

One way is to create a goal using the SMART method. SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound goals.

Specific

Most of us write vague goals, like “I want to lose weight” or “I want to cut back on alcohol.” Unfortunately, these goals are not specific enough. You must be clear about what you want to accomplish. For example, you could say, “I want to lose 30 pounds,” or “I want to cut back to one glass of wine.”

A specific goal typically has an amount attached, such as pounds, dollars, cups, or days. How specific can you make your goals?

Measurable

Double down further by ensuring they are measurable. How are you going to know when you have reached your goal? Instead of “I want to lose 30 pounds,” you could say, “I want to lose 30 pounds, from 250 pounds to 220 pounds.” Or, in the example of the wine, change the goal from “I want to cut back to one glass of wine” to “I want to drink just one four-ounce glass of wine with dinner.”

You must be able to track your progress, whether with a scale, glasses, dollars, or another measurement. How can you reword your goals to record your progress?

Achievable

Unrealistic goals will create more anxiety. Your goals must be achievable, although challenging. If you are working full-time, raising children, running a side business, and caring for an aging parent, then now may not be the time to set a goal to participate in an Iron Man. You won’t have the time to train, and the stress from falling behind in your goal will increase your anxiety levels.

Look at your goals and make sure they make sense in your life. Is it achievable to lose 30 pounds in one year? For some people, yes. But for others going through a difficult relationship or struggling with hormonal imbalances, they may need to choose a more realistic number; maybe 10 pounds instead of 30.

Relevant

Take a look at your goals and hold them up against your values. When your goals and values disagree, anxiety is sure to follow. For example, if nurturing relationships with your teenage children is one of your values, accepting a promotion at work that will keep you on the road every other week may not work for you.

Although the promotion may be a goal, you will live your life stressed because you disagree with the value of your relationship with your children.

Consider your values and make sure your goals reflect your values. How can you tweak your goals to align with what you value most?

Time Bound

A goal must have a deadline, and you must be willing to be flexible in assessing your progress. The goal may not change, but at times, it may be necessary to tackle the goal from a different angle. For example, maybe you chose to lose thirty pounds in one year, reaching a weight of 220 pounds. You have decided this goal is achievable, and you have set your goal for one year. Write the date.

Assess your progress at milestones, perhaps every thirty or ninety days. See what you need to do differently. List all the tasks you need to complete to accomplish the goal and break it down into smaller tasks. Assign monthly, weekly, and daily tasks. Assign a deadline to your goals, but give yourself grace if you miss the deadline. Looking over your plan, now everything seems doable.

Christian counseling can help overcome anxiety

If you are wondering how to overcome anxiety and looking for more methods, contact our office today to schedule an assessment with a Christian counselor. Your counselor will assess your symptoms and the severity of your anxiety and help you create a care plan. Together, you will work toward your mental health goals, possibly using talk therapy, group therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and relaxation techniques.

The New Year does not have to bring more anxious thoughts. By giving Christian counseling a try today, you can control your symptoms and reach your goals.