Last Drop Blog

As someone working on sobriety and who deals with mental health issues, it is common for me to overanalyze and overthink. I have grown to learn the importance of breaking things down and attempting to simplify goals and actions. I got a whiteboard not too long ago and have been writing down goals. I have a section for weekly goals, daily goals, weekend goals, daily reminders (my big 4), a quote I currently enjoy, and a miscellaneous section. Early on I would struggle writing things out on the board, I would get started and then get stuck on one thing and felt like I could fill the entire board with micro goals within the one broad goal.

Nutrition, Hydration, Exercise, Sleep. Those are my big 4 and have stayed up on my board since I got it. Broad and direct. It is easy for me to look at those 4 words and understand what I should do or how I can determine my progress. I simplified a ton of thoughts and micro goals into these four words. For example, with nutrition I could find myself going around in circles about the things I want to do. Eat 3 full meals a day, eat a full breakfast, have both fruits and vegetables today, eat over 2000 calories… the list could go on. It is important for me to realize that adding all these things to my board do not help me in achieving my goals, instead they actually stress me the fuck out and make me feel bad if I cant check off all these things at the end of the day. You only have so much time in a day to do the things you want/should do, every day there is likely going to be things you wish you would have done but didnt have the time for or you just couldn’t get yourself to do them for whatever reason and thats ok. There is no use in setting unrealistic goals for yourself. I have since worked on simplifying my goals and have been able to look up at my board and not feel overwhelmed by the bar I set for myself.

I also accept that right now it is not realistic for me to perfect all four of those goals. Not everyday I am going to get a solid 8 hours of rest, eat a healthy amount of quality food, get to the gym, and drink enough water. So last week I worked on prioritizing sleep and I am glad I did. I found myself getting to bed earlier and waking up feeling more rested. I still struggled getting up some mornings but I gained a better understanding of the importance of a good nights rest. This week I plan on prioritizing nutrition. I am going to attempt to be more aware of the amount of food I eat and gauge how my intake makes me feel. I am not going to apply too much focus on the things I choose to eat but rather the amount. After this week I would like to have a better understanding on how my caloric intake makes me feel. My goals are realistic for me right now at this stage in my life. They don’t overwhelm me, I wont be incredibly upset if I don’t achieve them all today or this week, I just work on acknowledging them and understanding how achieving them can make me feel. Things constantly change and your goals will change, I may have had goals months or weeks ago that I no longer care to achieve now and thats perfectly fine. As long as I am progressing on what is important to me right now in this moment I will be content. As long as I can be conscious and understand that I will not be able to do a million things at once I will prevent unnecessary stress. This whiteboard definitely added to my stress levels when I first got it because I put up a million things I wanted to achieve with no realistic deadline or plan of action. I now know how to be more realistic with my goals and how to break down some thoughts or ideas into broader simpler tasks. Thinking smarter not harder is a good way to sum up the lesson learned here. Taking a step back and being realistic with myself has allowed me to set better boundaries. It has allowed me to get a better understanding for how I think about things and what may lead to stress in my life. Most importantly, it has helped improve my decision making skills. I am better at waking up each morning and taking action, taking control of my day, and understanding what it is that I want for myself in that moment. Im no expert, but I recognize that simplifying my goals and breaking things down to a level that I am comfortable with has led to minor improvements in my everyday life.