Approaching that wind-up season, the career goals we set at the start of the year start to get highlighted. Missing the mark and not achieving can feel defeating but what is not often talked about is the impact of achieving a big goal.
Whether it is finishing your studies, earning a promotion or finally stepping up to a level of success you have been working for, ticking off a major milestone that you have devoted a huge amount of time to can leave people feeling a little empty.
Psychologists have called this the ‘arrival fallacy’. To put it simply, achieving a goal temporarily awards the pleasure centre in the brain and for high achievers, that feeling can become addicting.
So how can you avoid the pitfalls of post-goal achievement depression?
Here are a few little tips:
- Focus on the journey: by learning to enjoy the process, you can lessen the importance of the outcome
- Remember your mission: why are the goals so important in the first place? Think back to why you set the goal and what you hoped it would bring to your life.
- Celebrate yourself: after a big achievement, remind yourself of how far you’ve come!
Don’t forget that success is not a constant state: life ebbs and flows all the time. Each milestone we complete. Every failure we experience. It all is part of the bigger picture that makes up your entire life.