Setting Business Goals When You Have Bipolar or Depression

When thinking about goals and tasks, maintaining routines is very important; especially for the person with depression or bipolar disorder. It' easy to get caught up in the pressure of deadlines, expectations of your role at work and trying to balance a social life. Specific times set aside for spouse, friends, leisure time and even mealtime can bring a sense of stability to individuals coping with bipolar disorder or depression. So how do you set business goals?

How to Establish Manageable Business Goals When Living with Bipolar Disorder or Depression

Goal setting in business is not that different than goals for personal use. One of the main differences is that personal goals are used to benefit the writer, while goals for business affect the writer, co-workers and the supervisor/boss. By its nature, bipolar disorder disrupts the goals for work, goals for life and even daily plans.

When you begin to set a business goal, start with an assessment of the present situation in relationship to the goal. You may have some preliminary work already done. Or you may be redoing some work that has been previously done but needs updating. This could be a major project extending over a long period of time or working with a team of individuals. The evaluation of this previous work and work from others can help to reduce the stress from your goal setting.

Mood Instability and Trying to Stay Focused on Your Goal

The next step in goal setting is to set up a short-term goal. One question you should ask about the short-term goal is , "Why does the goal matter?," If you cannot answer that question, then the goal may be a task, part of a goal. Goal setting using arbitrary dates will be difficult to keep. When a bipolar individual is in a stable mood, work goals seem to be obtainable as well as reasonable. When moods become unstable, such as with depression or anxiety, individuals are self-absorbed and constrained in their thoughts. Helplessness and hopelessness often results. Depressive moods exhibit little physical energy and little emotional resources. Mood shifts can impair your interpretations of the goals you have set. If the goals do not have good, reasonable thinking when set, mood shifts can tear apart any goal.

After setting your first short-term goal and before you set an another short term goal; look for the big picture. Your first small goal is your first step. The big picture is knowing where to go. When you make the next small goal, make it farther along in the schedule and again ask , "Why does this goal matter?," Keep setting short-term goals until you get to your final short-term goal. Now the combination of all short-term goals make up the long-term goal. As you can see, a good part of the job is proper planning.

Successful People Know Importance of Goal Setting

Those who have achieved a high level of independence have done so with goal setting, prioritizing goals and setting personal work limits. Individuals who often do not set goals and limits are defenseless against obsession. Obsessive behavior can have positive and negative outcomes. Mastering a skill in a new area could result in less time spent with family. One can spend too much time being extremely organized. If the goal is exciting, then obsession and fixation on the goal can happen and family and friends will be abandoned. Inattentiveness to others and self-indulgence are traits of mania and hypomania. Again, we get back to the importance of balancing work, life, friends and fun.