Goal Letdown

Have you ever achieved a big goal and then felt inexplicably down and empty afterwards?

You’ve been anticipating, often for SO LONG, the relief and elation you’ll feel on completion but then, when the moment comes, there’s only a sense of unease and ‘what now?’ UGH.

The good news is that this [often] confusing response is super normal, especially for ambitious people who tend to pour energy into their goal-striving.

Often we’ve built the achievement up to feel like something magical and the end result doesn’t look like that.

There’s often a mix of exhaustion in there too.

And there’s something about goal-striving that delivers a structure to our days. Once the goal is complete, the structure often dissolves and that can be uncomfortable for people who like a plan.

If you tend to find yourself in a slump after a big achievement, it can be worthwhile creating a bit of an Action Plan to help:

+ Set a Limit

The quiet that comes after a big achievement can feel scary because it feels like it will go on forever. It can be useful to set a limit to the calm: I will enjoy this quiet for a week. I will consciously choose to do nothing. And then I will start goal-striving again. If this is hard for you, make having a rest a goal.

+ Reconnect with your Purpose

Once you’ve given yourself a break, you might be tempted to launch straight into something new [anything!] without really thinking about the goal itself.

It can be helpful to turn your attention to the bigger picture, and choose a next goal that aligns with your bigger Why. So that instead of doing for the sake of doing you’ll find yourself engaged in some really meaningful striving.

+ Plan for Next Time

And finally, once you have a new goal in play, you might like to set up a reminder in your diary for the day/week/month you plan to realise it…to check in with these notes. Because there’s a chance you might end up feeling the same way next time around and revisiting this action plan could be just the thing you need.

Tags: career-coaching, life-coaching, Melbourne