My Future Goals and Why Essay Example for Free

My Future Goals and Why Essay My future goal is to obtain enough education for me acquire some of the skills I want to work with women and children that have been abused, either violently or sexually. One of my main reasons for enrolling In the Addiction Studies Program here at Peninsula College is because drugs and alcohol play a huge part in Domestic Violence and other forms of abuse among other things. I would like to open a unique center, where women and children could go for safety, and I would incorporate and introduce Art Therapy as one of the many tools one needs to heal in this life long process. see more:how to achieve my goals essay I strongly feel as a child, art helped me escape to a place that I needed to go to in troubled times. As an adult, just plain therapy was on the top of the list, as a different form of abuse crept into my life. To my amazement, art helped me escape to that same place I went to as a child in troubled times. I want to help others heal, and educate all so as to stop these painful cycles of abuse that many times can be foreseen or stopped, with just a little awareness and education, as in my own personal case. The education, Ive only just begun. Compared to what I’ll need to be an Art Therapist, Ill be going to college for the next 5 to 7 years. Personally, Im not sure I have it in me to go to school for that long. I’ve decided recently that Im not going to make my goals too high, so as not to set myself up for failure like I have done so many times in the past. I am almost done with the Addiction Studies program here at Peninsula College, and when finished, I will continue to take classes to finish my Associate of Arts degree. If I decide to pursue Art Therapy, I will seek a Bachelor’s and Masters degree at Antioch College in Seattle. The reality of it all is that Ill probably do an online program through Western College in Bellingham. I have also been considering going all of the way and get my CDP, because I’m interested in Trillium Treatment Center and what they offer. For now, I am all about just taking one day at a time and trying to get healthy again, I have suffered from depression, PSTD and anxiety most of my life, and it seems that the older I get, the harder it is to snap out of it. I am going to change my medication next week because the Cymbalta doesn’t seem to be working as well as it should. I am looking for work because I believe that it is good therapy and I need the extra financial help. I have not worked since 2009, due to surgery on both left and right hands. I have Carpal Tunnel still but not as bad as I did before, and I know that not working has contributed to the depression. I believe that staying enrolled in classes has kept me somewhat sane, although it has been a struggle at times. Currently I am in the process of filling out an application at Healthy Families. I think it would be a great place to get my foot in the door while working with the population that I want to work with. I also have the contact person at Trillium Treatment Center, so I need to find out what it will take to maybe get my foot in the door there. I feel that it would be important for me to pursue my CDP since I am so close to completing the Addiction Studies program, and completing this is detrimental to my current state of mind. In the past, I have always come so close to getting my degree, but for whatever reason, I never finish anything I start. One of the drawbacks I am currently experiencing is that I really need to get a job that pays something, even just a little. Another drawback is that I have something on my record that has previously just kept me from getting a job that I really wanted and felt that I was ready for. The bad thing is, is that there shouldn’t be anything on my record, but I took the charge just to get it over with. I have been way too trusting most of my life, and never would have thought that other people could be so devious in their actions. I have taken this as one in many life-long lessons that needs to be applied to my life. I know that I need to get out into the community more and network with more people, so I have signed up to volunteer for the Project Homeless Connect on March 30th. There will be a training session that I need to attend on March 27th or 28th, and I am very excited to be doing this, as I am kind of a homebody and don’t really go out much unless I have to. In order for me to make any kind of difference, not only in my life, but others, I need to commit to doing it. On that note, I need to take some bold steps in the direction that I want my life to move in. As I explore and develop some of my ideas about what I really value in my life, I can use these values as a sort of road map into my future. Each value that I have can be like a compass point by which I can chart the course of my life and start walking in that direction. This is basically a four-point process that constantly repeats itself through life: First point is to contract my alues, second is to develop my chosen goals that will help me move into a valued direction, third, is to take very specific actions that will allow me to achieve those goals, and fourth, I need to contact and work with my internal barriers to move towards action. To help me achieve this, I have taken the first action in obtaining and reaching my goals by Creating the Road Map: Setting Goals. In Chapter 12 of the ACT workbook, I had listed some of my values in order of importance, manifestation, and life-deviation scores. Now I will need to decide which of those values I want to work toward incorporating into my life right now. I know that ultimately I will work on all of these, but for now, I will choose only one. This will give me a good model in which to work from and follow for the other valued directions I will want to take. I am going for the middle-of-the-road in order of importance, because there are some barriers that I am not quite ready to take on, but I feel that if I can just get past a few, I can build up my mental strength and self-esteem. I read a quote in the workbook that I wrote down and posted in several places throughout my home. The quote says, â€Å"I just want to do this because that’s what I want my life to be about. It’s not really about any outcome. I want to be alive until I’m dead. † I guess I liked this because I do not feel like I am really living anymore. I do not do any of the things I used to do and I have become dependent upon one person, and that person is not me. In the past I have felt like the goals I set for myself was the true goal, but that really isn’t the case. I have chosen a short-term goal that is obtainable and will help me with some of my long-term goals also. I have already signed up to volunteer for the Project Homeless Connect on March 30th. I only need to go to one training session, and have a choice to do the one day training either on March 27th or 28th. For me, this is huge, this is something outside of my daily routine of school and home, but I have checked my goal for the following items: Is it practical? Is it obtainable? Does it work with my current situation? Does this goal lead me in the direction of my stated value? I answered yes to all of the above, so the only barrier I would face in not accomplishing this goal would be fear, sickness or pure laziness. I also believe that one of the problems that I suffer with is an issue with self-control. Avoidance and fusion feed this pattern of mine, which in essence, disrupt my life and make it nearly impossible to achieve any goals, whether they are short or long-term. I have decided that I need to make a commitment to myself and follow through with it. I need to break the old behavioral pattern that has doomed me ever since I can remember. I am tired of being a failure and giving up, tired of making a commitment, breaking that commitment, the quitting that commitment all together. I am going to work on setting my goals and following through for myself. I want to live my life, not just pass through it. I want to thank you for your commitment to us as students; I have to say that you are one of my favorite Instructors, although you are not easy, I appreciate that you make us try harder, and sometimes that is just what a person needs.