Now that you have completed all of the sessions, it is a good time to review your self-management goals.
Identifying the successes
On a sheet of paper, list your goals for the program and whether you have reached these goals. List the strategies that have helped you reach these goals.
Remember that everyone is different. Each person has different goals and strategies that work best for them.
Identifying and overcoming barriers to success
You may find it helpful to identify the goals and strategies that you had difficulty with or that did not progress the way you wanted them to. Think of some areas that you had difficulty with and would like to work on.
Can you name two different skills that you would like to work on?
There are many reasons why setbacks can occur:
- Learning some of the management skills may be difficult. They may require more time and practice.
- You may forget to practice the skills.
- You may think that some of the skills are too hard to do.
- A major event may happen, like a disease flare or the illness of a family member. This can interrupt the learning of new skills.
- It may take too long to notice any improvement from using a new skill.
All of these reasons can be thought of as barriers. They are reasons why you might find it hard to learn or remember to use the skills. You can think up strategies to get around these barriers.
Here is an example:
Barrier: It’s hard to find time to relax when I have something more interesting or important to do.
Strategy: I tell myself that relaxing feels great. It is fun to let my mind wander and to imagine being in my favourite place. I tell myself that practicing for several minutes now will help me learn to relax quickly and easily later on. It will not be long until this practice pays off!
Write down the biggest barrier you expect to face.
Now write how to face this barrier.
If you find that you have multiple reasons for not practicing the skills, remember your goal is to help yourself manage JIA. If you are committed to taking control over your life, then you need to try your best to see if these strategies will work for you. If you are having trouble meeting your goals, discuss what is getting in the way with a member of your health care team.
You may also feel like certain strategies just didn’t work for you and you don’t want to keep practicing them. Practice over time makes us better at using any strategy. Sometimes we don’t notice improvements right away and it may not seem worthwhile to keep practicing. Sometimes, even with practice, certain strategies aren’t as helpful for one person as for another. You can ask your health care team to help you with these strategies while you are doing this program.
