Do you set personal goals for yourself?

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Absolutely. Life is a series of continual little goals. When I achieve one goal, there’s no big celebration. I simply move on to the next goal.

Before my stroke I always used to set little daily goals. Usually just tiny things. Read the electric meter, or somesuch. Although it might be larger tasks like “build a wardrobe”. Mostly, goals only took a minute so I’d get through twenty or thirty per day without even thinking about it.

Since the stroke, life has become slower. I’ll still set myself a goal such as “read the meter”, but each individual goal takes that much more effort, so I’ll maybe only set myself a half dozen goals per day.

There are also different types of goals. Reading the meter might only be small, but it’s important because otherwise, the energy company will assume that my electricity connection has been used to power my local city for the last month!

But other goals are less important. For example I might set myself the goal of going into town, but if I wake up and don’t feel I have enough energy, I might just as easily put the journey off for a day or two. I’m quite good at organising myself so that I rarely have an absolute need to do something on a particular day.

If I happen to miss a goal, I think it’s important not to beat myself up. I’m lucky. If something doesn’t get done until a day or two later, so what? I know somebody who continually sets themself goals, continually misses them, and continually berates herself for it. I don’t think that can be particularly good for her self esteem. I think it’s important to understand the consequence of not achieving a goal, and most of the time, the consequence is zero. Even if I skip an electric reading, I can always put it right next month.