I have goals, sure. I had to list my therapy goals on of the forms my T made me fill out at the start. And my Pdoc wrote up some treatment goals for me (but that was more so I could have something from her).

But I prefer not to try to achieve goals. Sounds messed up. I prefer to just taking baby steps forward and practicing coping skills. I still wind up meeting my goals that way. I don't know. I think sometimes achieving a set goal might not be realistic.

Like a goal would be (since you mentioned trauma) to cope with childhood trauma. But it's so vague. How do I even begin to do that? What does the completion of that goal even look like for me? So instead, when those traumas start affecting me, I talk about it in therapy and use coping skills outside of therapy. When they don't affect me, I don't work on it. And over time, I assume I'll meet the goal in my own way.

But I also do this in different ways too. Many people who have addictions count the days they've been sober. I don't. It adds too much pressure. My addictions I'm working on is smoking and SI. I don't know how long it's been since I've SI'ed. I'm sure I could figure it out, but I don't want to. It gives it too much importance. Instead, anytime the desire comes up, I work on coping with it.

But, for the sake of this thread, my goals (in therapy and life) are: to socialize, gain confidence, be more independent, go back to school/get a part time job, go to group therapy (more my doctors goals for me), become a mother, make a friend, not SI, control my skin picking, quit smoking, and work on physical health. My daily goal: use coping skills and keep myself safe.

You can have overall/end goals, but I just find that the smaller goals are much more realistic and less overwhelming to achieve.