MENTAL HEALTH
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Illustrations: Millie Chesters @milliechesters
gershonportnoipsychotherapy.com
When New Year's Resolutions Go Wrong Psychotherapist Gershon Portnoi explains why you need to think carefully when setting your goals for the year ahead. For many of us, the start of a new year coincides with a vast set of new goals that we task ourselves with achieving. Whether it’s winning the cup with our team or getting promoted at work, we all aspire to hit the heights in the year ahead. There is, of course, nothing wrong with that. After all, we can never be expected to achieve much in life without setting targets. But occasionally there can be a downside to making a new year’s resolution. Imagine a scenario where you set
"The key thing to ask yourself is whether your goal is achievable."
yourself a target of being able to do 100 It’s also important to have a detailed
keepie-uppies, having never previously
skills, it is based on a realistic chain
managed to do more than five or ten.
of events: if you set your bar too high,
plan in place for achieving your
You start off all guns blazing and before
you run the risk of crashing head-first
resolution, and to only focus on one
you know it you’ve hit twenty, then
into a major disappointment.
particular goal rather than making a
thirty, and you’re feeling great. But then, no matter how hard you
So, whether you’re after a rock-hard set of abs or a thirty-goal season, the
long list of targets. Finally, resolving to achieve some-
try, you just can’t get past forty and
key thing to ask yourself is whether
thing you’ve previously failed to do is
you begin to feel a sense of disap-
your goal is achievable.
another potential problem, as you’ll
pointment and failure. In some cases,
If you’re the office intern, resolving to
be highly likely to approach the task lacking in real belief.
these kinds of negative feelings can
become the CEO by the year’s end is
start spilling out into other parts of
definitely unrealistic, but if you aim to
your life and your self-esteem might
become a full-time member of staff, it’s
do), here’s to a genuinely happy new
be affected, which can itself trigger a
far more likely.
year. TGP
prevalent low mood and anxiety.
Whatever you decide to do (or not
Similarly, it’s important that the goal you set is as specific as it can be – in-
To find out more about Gershon
up situation and you’re unlikely to
stead of aiming to lose weight or get fit,
and his psychotherapy practice,visit
damage your mental health while
give yourself an exact target like losing
gershonportnoipsychotherapy.com.
attempting to improve your football
half a stone or running a half marathon.
Although this is an entirely made-
