How do you measure personal growth?

I work in Social Work. For the past 17 years, I have seen trends in Social Work come and go. Currently, we used Motivational interviewing and Illness Management and Recovery techniques to help people move forward in their recovery journeys. Now, the people in charge of our mental health programs are looking for "measurable" goals. I get it. It means, if someone has a goal for themself how do we, the workers, measure their progress. It makes sense from a beauracratic point of view because in this day and age of cut backs and diminishing budgets, the government wants hard data to show that people are getting better.

I'm conflicted about the methods being bantered about as to how to do this. I believe that individuals are their own best measuring tool. Unfortunately, the tools we're given want to measure things in percentages. For example, if someone states their goal as "I want to be more socialable." The tools ask us to give this a percentage which might look like "Joe will attend Social Group 3x per month." Now that doesn't look so bad except I have to wonder if Joe only shows up for 2x per month, does make Joe a failure? Or what if Joe increases to 5x per month, does that make him an overachiever? The problem I have is that these measurable goals say very little about Joe's personal experience at that social group. It leans more toward making poor Joe another statistic than seeing him as a human being.

I remember 17 years ago, when I was just starting out, these types of percentage goals were very much the norm. Case management was like being a broker and all we managed was numbers, not people. It saddens me to think that we seem to have come full circle. I hope that there is a way to keep the person at the center of it all. I wish there was some way to convince funding sources and government agencies that just talking to people is the best measure of how successful a person is in achieving their goals. And, when someone is living with a mental illnes, those goals are fluid, they change, they take small steps and relapse is expected but not devestating. Isn't that the way it should be for all of us?

Feeling awfully good about myself!

So, I've been working really hard at losing weight these days. I joined Weight Watchers in July and I'm down 31 pounds since then. I think I've mentioned, Alex and I have joined a gym and I've been pretty faithful about going there at least three times per week. I do thirty to forty five minutes of cardio (treadmill, cycling and sometimes elliptical) and sometimes I throw in some weight circuits just for good measure. I HATE working out. I really do. Well, actually, it's the getting motivated to go work out that gets me. I'm not motivated, not really.

But I keep asking myself how badly do I want this? How much do I want to lose this extra weight once and for all and what am I willing to do to lose it?

Tonight, Alex was worn out. His sleep pattern is always weird and off and on and tonight he was too tired to go to the gym. It would have been easy for me to use that as an excuse to stay home. But I didn't. I went. On my own. And I did my full work out.

The thing is, once I am there, it feels good. I do like it. I feel better working out and it's fun. It's just getting there that's the hassle. But, oh well, I did it!! And that makes me feel pretty damn good about me.

My overall weight goal is big but I can't think about that. That would be too much to handle and I would be frustrated and quit. So, I am taking it one pound at a time, one meal at a time, one work out at a time. And it's working. I have two newish pair of jeans that I can no longer wear. And not because they're too tight. They're way too big! I can put them on and take then off without unzipping them! Hahah! So, I'm making a box load of clothes to give away.

Also, since the holidays are looming. I'm going to take part in a Food Collection Challenge. For every pound I lose between now and Thanksgiving, I'm going to donate a pound of non-perishable items to a local food bank. It's gonna be good seeing that food donation pile grow as the pounds come off!

My ultimate fitness goal is to be able to run. Oh, I can run now but I mean to run...like a long way...outside. Just for fun! It's coming. I know it is. Until then, one pound at a time. I'll get there!