Tag: Setting Goals

Every year, millions of people begin setting goals for their New Year’s resolutions right after the Christmas holiday. Parents and guardians of people with special needs are often harder on themselves than necessary at this time of introspection, both in evaluating what they accomplished and helped their loved ones accomplish in the previous year and what they must accomplish in the next year. Even if no one is pressuring you, you want to provide the best life possible for them and you want your loved ones to achieve their goals as well. This year, when you’re setting goals for yourself and your family, it’s time to flip the mindset and start making meaningful goals without discrediting the progress you have already made. Lexington Services wants to see you set and meet goals with a sense of positivity. Here is what you are going to do different in the new year.

Don’t Focus On Autism

One of the most limiting things that anyone can do is focus on their limitations, instead of their potential. Author Anita Lesko, who wrote Temple Grandin: The Stories I Tell My Friends, did not find out for many years that she was living with autism. When setting her goals, she built her path on the things that she wanted to accomplish and didn’t let the limitations she had always lived with keep her from a Nurse Anesthetist, Military Journalist and Pilot. If any person that has had success focused only on their limitations, they would not have gone very far. When you are setting goals for yourself or you are encouraging your loved ones to set goals for themselves, don’t focus on autism and don’t focus on limitations. Instead, focus on possibility.

Focus Directly On Things To Change

If you are setting goals for the New Year, nothing can be more detrimental to your confidence or easily left behind as a goal than a vague promise. That’s not to say that a goal to “be happy” or “spend more time with family” isn’t a valid resolution. These are perfectly good goals. However, the more direct and incremental you get with your goals, the more likely you are to succeed in making changes. For example, a person is more likely to lose weight if they set a goal to lose 25 pounds by a certain date than if they just say “I’m going to lose weight.” Set your focus directly at what to change and what you can do in a certain time frame when setting your goals.

Take Complex Goals In Steps

Part of the reason people get discouraged after setting goals for their new year is the need to accomplish too much too quickly. People try to take on too large of a chunk and they end up getting burnt out. The key to accomplishing all your goals for next year is to take them in pieces. Break each goal down into the steps you need to finish to accomplish one part of your overall goals and focus on those smaller parts. Before you know it, you will have accomplished your goals entirely.

Cultivate Interests

Whether you are helping a loved one with autism or setting your own goals, interests are key to success. You can set personal goals to meet more people in the community or help your child set a goal to improve motor function, but these goals have no path toward achieving that goal. Specifically for people with autism, the best way to help people with special needs is to fold their interests into the path that helps you achieve that goal. For parents and caregivers, you are more likely to accomplish everything you set out to do if you can find some enjoyment while doing it.

At Lexington Services, we’re pretty familiar with setting goals and sticking to them. From the beginning we have accomplished the goals we set, but we have so many more goals we want to accomplish over the next 5 years. We’re also experts at helping people accomplish their own goals. Want to make your plans for the New Year? Let’s make a plan together. Call 480-900-1009 now or send an email to info@lexingtonservi.wpengine.com.