goal setting

You’ve decided to start therapy, and now someone’s asking you about your goals. Maybe it’s your therapist, maybe it’s the intake form, or maybe it’s just that voice in your head wondering what you’re hoping to get out of this. If your mind goes blank when you try to think…

As important as it is these days to be productive, staying motivated isn’t always an easy task. There are plenty of effective strategies and guidelines for staying organized and accomplishing your goals, but many of those are pretty ineffective if you aren’t motivated to put them to use and reap…

It’s easy to focus on our flaws and failings, but what would happen if we chose to explore our strengths? Strengths-based therapy is a counseling approach that works with individuals to identify their strengths and help them gain the confidence and motivation they need to achieve their goals, among other…

Motivational interviewing (MI) is a counseling technique designed to help clients confront their mixed emotions about change and find the internal resources to motivate action. The MI method is rooted in the notion that people are more successful in overcoming ambivalence when they hear their own arguments for behavior change….

Call it what you want — time management, project management, life management — our calendars are critically involved in achieving our goals. All big projects come with long to-do lists, and not just in the corporate world. Somehow huge tasks have to be broken down into reasonable increments, and lofty…

Have you ever caught yourself actively undermining your own goals? Maybe you decide to take better care of your body, only to inhale fast food instead of buying healthy groceries. Maybe you miss an important work deadline because you spend your final pre-deadline hours doom scrolling on your phone to…

Goal setting and motivational practices are great ways to spur self-improvement, but what if there was something even easier that could help you get what you want in life?  The law of assumption is just about the simplest strategy for creating life opportunities: You just have to believe it! There’s…

Travel more. Lose weight. Get out of debt. Exercise more. Buy a new car. You’ve probably laid eyes on one or more of these goals before — they’re a handful of the most common goals in America. But did you actually achieve them? Better yet, did you put yourself on…

It’s normal to contemplate the state of the world and life itself; for some, though, these questions stir up intense emotions like distress and despair that last for months or sometimes years.  While existential depression is not a formal diagnosis, it is sometimes used to describe these cases of depression…

Click here to schedule online counseling at Thriveworks. Hi, my name is Anna Sihon. I’m a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with Thriveworks McLean, Virginia. And someone sent in a question about how to write a mission statement during COVID-19. COVID-19 responses have really messed up our way of doing things….

“How do I achieve my goals?” This is probably the most common inquiry on Google. People are always looking for tools to help them achieve their greatest goals and dreams. Yet, the best tool for this matter lies within ourselves. It’s our curiosity. Psychiatrist Judson Brewer says that you should…

We employ different ways of thinking. Some of us take a creative approach, while others are more analytic; some are focused on the short-term, while others think about the long-term. While we all have unique minds, our tendencies have been summed up into five recognized thinking styles: synthesists, or the…