Set Effective Goals for Your Recovery

Navigating recovery often involves learning and adapting. If you’ve experienced a pattern of moving forward and then encountering previous challenges, it might be valuable to examine your current recovery strategies and consider new perspectives.

One of the main things we focus on in treatment is the decision to make positive changes and then establishing goals that will help you get there. Goals help you prioritize, achieve your aspirations, augment your motivation for growth and enhance confidence and self worth. Thus, goal setting is an essential process for your well being.

What Are Goals?

Goals are well-formulated, specific, realistic, measured objectives that when accomplished, help us attain our dreams and aspirations. Goals can be dichotomized as either short-term or long-term. Short-term goals are achievable within a brief period of time and long-term goals are attainable within a longer time frame, typically 3-6 months and longer.

Why Are Goals Important in Recovery?

Goals are important to the recovery process for several reasons. They provide direction, motivation, and a framework for progress. They can:

• Provide a roadmap to guide you from where are to where you want to be.
• Offer a sense of purpose, which can help you rebuild your life after addiction.
• Give you something to work for.
• Increase engagement with the recovery process.
• Offer a framework for progress and accountability.
• Provide tangible evidence of change.
• Continue to help you facilitate structure and routine.
• Help you replace old patterns with new healthy ones.

How to Set Up Goals to Support Recovery

Think about goals like building a house. When constructing a house, a solid foundation is important. Your goals require solid foundation, too. When setting goals, we should be S.M.A.R.T. This acronym helps develop goal statements that are:

• Specific enough so you know what you’re aiming for.
• Measurable to help you determine progress.
• Action-oriented so you know what behaviors you need to enact.
• Realistic so your goals are practical and within your ability to achieve.
• Time-bound so you have a target to aim for.

For instance, instead of stating, “My goal is not to feel so down,” or, “My goal is never to crave drugs again,” we can say, “For the next two weeks, when I feel depressed I will write down what I’m feeling in my journal,” (this is a short-term goal) or, “My goal is to work a recovery program for six months, since I have a tendency to relapse after five months of sobriety,” this is a long-term goal.

To set up goals you should follow this process:

1. Construct effective goal statements.
2. Break down goals into manageable steps.
3. Review and re-evaluate your progress.

Getting Support for Your Recovery

Your recovery journey is your own, but you don’t have to do it on your own. If you need extra support, it’s important to reach out to your community, friends, family, or to us. At American Addiction Centers we don’t believe that treatment ends once you leave one of our centers. We are here to support you throughout your journey, whether through aftercare or alumni program.

Reach out to us today at to speak with one of our navigators. Or you can connect with us by text, email, or through or social media channels.