Setting Goals for Managing Chronic Pain

By Hannah Friedman | July 24, 2024

Goals provide purpose and drive in our lives. Can you think of a goal you once had and how it felt to achieve that goal? It most likely felt great.

When you think of goals, the first thing that usually comes to mind is someone trying to reach a fitness goal or land their dream job. However, setting goals can be useful for managing chronic pain, too.

This article is all about setting goals for managing chronic pain. Let’s face it: managing pain is a huge task. The best way to tackle a large task is to set a goal and break it down into more manageable pieces.

What are goals and why are they important for chronic pain?

Goals are what you strive to achieve. When you have a goal, you put effort into achieving that goal so that you can improve. The distance between where you are now and where you want to be causes ambition towards reaching the goal.

Setting a goal can help you identify what steps you need to take to improve. Goals can become a guiding principle for how you live each day.

a silhouette of a man standing with hands raised at sunrise

It’s no secret that living with chronic pain is challenging. It can take a lot of work and forethought to prevent and manage pain episodes. Waking up and thinking “what do I need to do today to feel okay?” can feel daunting. However, setting a goal related to your chronic pain can help make your preventative actions more purposeful. A goal becomes a target that you can centre yourself on.

Having a goal allows you to plan for your future. You become more motivated as you move toward reaching the goal. This feeling can help you feel more confident and more in control of your chronic pain.

Example

When you have a clear goal, the steps to reach that goal become more apparent. Let’s use a hypothetical example:

“A major concern of mine is my mobility. It hurts to move around, but the less I move, the more pain I’m in, and the less mobile I become. I would love to improve my mobility.

My goal is to be able to walk at a comfortable pace for 30 minutes each day by the end of the year.

Each day, I will wake up and walk around the block. I can currently walk for 5 minutes at a time. I’ll start at 5 minutes and add on two minutes each week until I can walk for 30 minutes each day. There is a bench on my route that I can sit down at if I need a rest. I will try to minimize using the bench as I progress.”

This person knows they want to become more mobile. Now, they have a clear goal that will help them gradually improve to the point where they can walk for half an hour each day. Seeing how many minutes they can go is a tangible number that they can assess to understand their progress. They can also assess if they are improving by seeing how often they need to sit and rest.

They can start small and work their way up slowly. This allows them to prioritize working on their endurance and strength to walk each day.

Person Stands on Brown Pathway

There is an acronym for making clear goals: SMART. It stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.

Your goal should be specific, rather than vague. This will help you stay on track to exactly what you want to achieve.

It should be measurable so you can track your progress. For instance, is there a distance, time, weight, etc. that you are working towards?

The goal should be attainable. It’s good to make sure the goal is possible in the first place. Otherwise, you are setting yourself up for failure.

To make sure you’re prioritizing the right things, your goal should be relevant. This means it should matter to you and your current situation.

Finally, your goal should be time-bound. If you have no time-limit for your goal, you will never achieve it. Having a clear time boundary will make your efforts more direct.

This image is against a bright blue background. The title is "SMART model for goal setting. The word "SMART" is in big bold letter with a description of each letter below. S: Specific - Goals must be clear. M - Measurable - must be able to track progress. A - Attainable - must be realistic and achievable. R - Relevant - Must matter in the current situation. T - time-bound - Must have a deadline or schedule.

Returning to the previous example, you can see that the goal is SMART. Notably, it is aimed towards making the person more mobile, which is specific and relevant to their situation. They have a clear time-limit, and it is measurable because they’ve set a goal of walking for a certain amount of time. Overall, the goal is attainable because being able to walk for 30 minutes within the year is realistic for this person.

For more information on setting clear goals, our CBT for Chronic Pain course has a lesson on setting goals with helpful worksheets. Click the link to jump to the course!

What kinds of goals might be relevant for managing pain?

Let’s discuss how to make the goal relevant to managing your pain. One tip is that you shouldn’t focus your goal too much on the pain itself. It is not always attainable to be completely pain-free at the end of your goal.

Focus on other aspects of your life that are affected by pain. You’ll find that your pain intensity may improve as a result of improving other aspects of your functioning.

Think about how pain affects you the most. Are there things you miss out on due to pain? Are there areas of your functioning that are declining? What matters to you right now? It may be helpful to write this all down.

person writing on white paper

Some examples of relevant areas to base your goal on are as follows:

Physical Functioning

  • Improve strength, flexibility, ability to exercise, endurance

Medication and Treatment Adherence

  • Follow treatment plan
  • Take medication as prescribed
  • Reduce amount of extra painkillers taken

Improving Mood, Sleep, and Self-Esteem

  • Prioritize self-care, incorporate mindfulness and relaxation techniques
  • Engage with family and friends more often
  • Prioritize better sleep
  • Practice CBT techniques

Improving Productivity

  • Taking steps to return to work
  • Taking steps to engage in daily activities and chores
  • Reduce avoidance behaviors
black and white dartboard with dart sticking out of the very middle point

Conclusion

Trying to tackle your chronic pain all at once without any sort of guiding principle is overwhelming. Setting a clear goal can help you to better manage your pain day-to-day. It can also help prioritize your actions to achieve improvements that will make your quality of life better.

Setting a goal for chronic pain management can help you to feel more motivated to engage in self-care. It also provides a sense of purpose and direction. When you’ve achieved the goal, celebrate your achievement. Then, make a new goal – this is how greater progress is made.

References 

Center For Pain Medicine. (n.d.). Patient Stories and Goals for Managing Pain. Brigham and Women’s Hospital. https://www.brighamandwomens.org/anesthesiology-and-pain-medicine/pain-management-center/patient-goals

Houston, E. (2020, October 10). What is goal setting and how to do it well. Positive Psychology. https://positivepsychology.com/goal-setting/

Mind Tools. (n.d.). Personal Goal Setting. https://www.mindtools.com/page6.html

Murphy, J.L., McKellar, J.D., Raffa, S.D., Clark, M.E., Kerns, R.D., & Karlin, B.E. (n.d.). Cognitive behavioral therapy for chronic pain among veterans: Therapist manual. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

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